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SIX SPEECHES 



■wrrn a 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE 



OF 



HON. ELI THAYER. 



B O S T O iSr : 
BROWN AND T A G G A R D . 

1 8 G 0. 

Kntcml according to Act of Congress, in the yenr l%0, by Brown & Taggara.iu the District Court of Massachusetts. 



z^c 



SIX SPEECHES 



OF 



HON. ELI THAY 



[" Welcome evermore to gods and men," 
says Emerson, " is the self-helping man. For 
Lim all doors are ilung wide ; him all tongues 
greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with 
desire." 

lie who shows that he can do without our 
help, is exactly the man whose help we can- 
not do without. The self-helper helps all the 
rest, because he shows them of what they are 
capable. When the virgin soil of Kansas 
was given over to the foul embrace of slavery, 
and they who might have saved it desponded 
when they should have done nothing but 
labor, one man, with no public record hither- 
to, ai)plied his quick brain to the problem, 
and his stout heart to tiie work, — and straight- 
way the thing despaired of was done ! That 
man was Kli Tiiayku, of Massachusetts. 
The struggle between free and slave labor 
was protracted far beyond the necessary limit, 
and was likely, at last, to be decided in favor 
of slavery. Kot that the latter really posses- 
sed larger power, but it happened that it was 
already on the ground, wiis fiuniliar with the 
field, could cope successfully with frontier ob- 
stacles, and enjoyeil the strong prestige of 
never yet having been beaten in such an en- 
counter. It bade fair, at that time, to worry 
Freedom out, and the field had already been 
virtually abandoned by the friends of the lat- 
ter, who were retiring in a sullen and angry 
mood from the confliet. All that was needed, 
at that particular crisis, was organization. 
The Free-State men were secretly conscious 
of their superior strength, yet knew not how 
to wii'lil it. Tlie right elements were to be 
had, but the master spirit was wanting, who 
should skilfully combine them. And, just at 
the right moment, that spirit stepped forth, 



— a new man to the masses, but himself 
thoroughly conscious of the power he held in 
his hand. 

That man was Eli Thayer, of Massachu- 
setts, and his secret was Organized Emi- 
OR.\TiON. Nobody, apparently, had thought 
of it, — the simplest thing in the world. And 
yet it was like a new discovery in the social 
development of the century, whose influence 
is to work until the whole earth is colonized, 
and the dreams of universal brotherhood are 
finally made real. For by this single agency 
all uninhabited (quarters of the globe are 
capable of smiling with the presence of a 
dense population. The work of the lonely 
pioneer has come to an end. We shall call on 
no more solitary hunters, like Daniel Boone, 
to wander forth from the extreme verge of 
civilized life and lose himself in the yellow 
sunset, for a whole town, county, and State 
may be transported as by magic ; the surplus 
of a dense population, by this simple ma- 
chinery, being planted in the heart of wilder- 
nesses almost by the sheer force and play of 
the single will that sets the machinery in 
operation. 

It is conceded that Eli Thayer, whatever 
else he may receive credit for, has earned the 
name of the originator of Organized Emi- 
gration : a system whose wonderful effects 
will be felt years after he is dead, and for 
which future generations will bless his name. 
It was Eli Whitney, another New England 
man, whose fertile brain invented the wonder 
called the Cotton Gin; but, for ourselves, 
great as cotton is, and is yet to be, we would 
far rather enjoy the honor of having invented 
the machine by which free labor may go and 
eolonizc wherever it will, with the assurance 



of its enjoying its honest reward. Tlic bene- 
fits of association, in one form and another, 
had ah-eady been advertised to the world, as 
in the case of banking, building, and insuring, 
but wc had yet to see the same principle ap- 
plied to colonization, and work out its magic 
results with such marvellous certainty and 
rapidity. Now, we may remove from the 
Atlazitic to the Pacific coast an entire town 
at a time, carrying out with us our favorite 
schools, chui'chcs, trades, and callings, none 
of which need part with their precious asso- 
ciations by the removal. This makes the no- 
madic a civilized life, tents being exchanged 
for houses. And nothing is more certain, 
than that where a people feels such rapid 
transmigration possible, all hopes of subduing 
their spirit or alienating their love for freedom 
are vain indeed. 

As a fit Introduction to the public speeches 
in Congress of the man who first taught us 
how to apply the system of Emigration to the 
spread of free labor over the continent, a 
brief sketch of his personal cai-eer may not 
be without interest to readers everywhere. 
The public would know all they can about a 
man of mai-k, nor ought he to expect to con- 
ceal himself Fortunately, however, no one 
can impute to Eli Thayer a necessity for be- 
ing at all fastidious about the most public 
showing of his entire career. It is of charac- 
teristic Interest enough to be sought out for 
publication in an European journal like the 
London Times, which thus helps to send his 
name, with a clear and true ring, quite around 
the world. That powerful journal, no doubt, 
regards him, to borrow the expression of one 
of our own leading presses, "as the chief in- 
terpreter of the great agencies which science 
and invention have placed within the grasp 
of man, and with which not only is the physi- 
cal world to be subdued to its uses, but false 
systems and oppressive institutions, founded 
in fraud, are to be crushed out of existence." 

Mr. Thayer is a native of Mendon, Mass., 
where he was born In the year 1819. His 
father was a laborious farmer, and subse- 
quently kept a country store In that part of 
the town now known as Blackstone. He was 
unable to do any thing for his sou Ell, more 
than other men in similarly cramped situa- 
tions, and the lad was therefore kept at work 
on the farm till he was well grown, obtalnlufr 
such meagre instruction as the district school 
of that day afforded him. But he was of an 



active turn of mind, and had learned enough 
to become eager to know more. About the 
time he had exhausted the rudiments in the 
district school, his father failed In business; 
but that hindered the lad none In his plans. 
lie resolved to acquire a liberal education, 
and one day informed his father of his dctei'- 
mlnation. IIoio he was going to accomplish 
his end was not much more clear to the mind 
of the one than the other. It was in the 
year 1835 when he packed his few clothes 
and placed his trunk on board a boat on the 
Blackstone Canal, bound for Worcester, and 
himself walked the entire distance. Such 
was his first entry into the city whose best 
interests he was so soon afterwards to sub- 
serve. 

In Worcester, he entered the " Manual 
Labor School," an institution that furnished 
Indigent young men, who might be so inclined, 
with a chance to pay for their schooling In 
work, as they went along. In this school 
young Thayer fitted himself for College, 
never having known a syllable either of 
Latin or Greek previous to coming here. 
After a year's hard labor and study, pursued 
night and day with restless energy, he pre- 
sented himself for admission into Brown Uni- 
vei'slty, at Providence. In mathematical at- 
tainments he was found deficient, not coming 
up to the standard ; but on his solemn pro- 
mise, that, by persevering labor, he would 
"catch up" and hold his place, under the 
circumstances of the case, he was admitted ; 
and the promise was remembered with pride 
by his Instructor when he came to leave the 
walls of his honored alma mater, for Thayer 
was the best In mathematics of his class. 

Eli Thayer entered college with nothing, 
and graduated with distinguished honors, and 
a few hundred dollars in his pocket. That 
is more than many of our college graduates 
can say. While In the University, he de- 
frayed his expenses by teaching district 
schools during the intervals of vacations, and 
by similar labors, from time to time, to those 
which sustained him at the scliool In Worces- 
ter. He played the carpenter, the wood- 
sawyer, and the landscape gardener; and 
there is a piece of embankment before one of 
the Professors' residences to-day, the green 
sods of which he placed with his own hands ; 
and they were well placed, too. Such a 
young man cannot fail to make his mark in 
the world of men in time, the supply being 



yet too scanty not to quicken the demand, 
Avhen tliey <lo appear. 

On leaving college, he returned to Wor- 
cester, and was made Principal of the very 
school in which he had been qualified for the 
University, the same being now known as 
the " Worcester Academy." Here he worked 
on as few men do work, even in the high vo- 
cation of teacher; and in the year 18 j1, he 
opened a school for girls on what was known 
as Goat's Hill, in a noble and appropriate 
structure which his own enterprise had erect- 
ed. Several acres are connected with the 
building, and the spot was named Mount 
Oread. The " Oread Institute," with its nu- 
merous pupils and its corps of skilful and ac- 
complished teachers, enjoys a fame, as wide 
as Worcester herself, throughout the coun- 
try. ]Mr. Thayer actively superintended the 
entire education of his pupils; and^ even 
now, finds time enough to carry on his origi- 
nal design with all the industry and vigor 
which he first brought to its development. 

Previous to entering on this undertaking, 
however, Mr. Thayer interested himself 
largely in real estate enterprises; audit is 
notorious that the city of Worcester is, to- 
day, indebted as much to him as to any other 
man for opening up certain leading improve- 
ments, such as locating shops and factories and 
mills, that have given an abiding impulse to 
its growth and material prosperity. It is not 
necessary to describe the Oread Institute ; 
every stranger who passes through ^^'orces- 
ter, in the cars, at once espies it and makes 
particular inquiry about it. Its towers, its 
long line of masonry, forming a sort of apron- 
work from end to end, its battlements and its 
Imposuig position, attract immediate atten- 
tion, and are worthy to crown a spot that of 
itself forms one of the boldest features of the 
town. It is proper to add that this seminary 
is well sustained by the public far and near, 
furnishing its projector with a liberal and cer- 
tain income, as his enterprise well deserves. 

"While still engaged in the business of in- 
struction, he has found time to indulge his 
tastes, to a greater or less degree, for politics. 
lie always took a profound interest in pub- 
lic questions, and was ready with his opinions 
— hitelligent, well-considered and indepen- 
dent, — when called upon for their expres- 
sion. In this regard, he furnishes a fine ex- 
ample of what really belongs to every good 



citizen . not to be so indifferent to all other 
pursuits than his own, as to lead a life of self- 
ishness and seclusion, but to hold himself 
ready to give his fellow-citizens the benefit 
of his aid and counsel in any energency. 
Thus he has been an Alderman in his 
adopted city. During the winter of 1853-4, 
he served as a member of the iMassachusetts 
Legislature, from Worcester, and again in 
the following winter. In this capacity he 
gave his political friends and supporters 
abundant satisfaction by his services. 

It was during his last term as a legislator 
that those events were born in our national 
history, which require just such a man to un- 
ravel and master them. The famous Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Bill having passed Congress, 
by the consequent repeal of the long-standing 
JMIssouri Compromise the young territories 
were forthwith thrown open for a hand-to- 
hand struggle between the forces of Free 
and Slave Labor.. Whichever should win in 
that fight, was to possess those lands for all 
time. The Free State men were at a dis- 
tance ; their opponents were already, as it 
were, on the ground. The former were placed 
at a still greater disadvantage, that they 
either had to pass directly through a slave 
Stateto reach Kansas, or to make a circuitous 
and wearisome journey further to the north, 
through a free State. It was expensive to 
remove all the way to Kansas ; little was 
known of the country at the East; men were 
extremely loth to take their families, one by 
one, so far beyond the frontier ; and, with 
such a variety and force of opposition, the 
spirit of the friends of Free Labor began sen- 
sibly to Hag, even while they saw and la- 
mented that the prize might, with proper ef- 
fort, be won. IIow to make that effort most 
effective was the problem. 

Eli Thayer sat in the State Capitol and 
thought the whole thing out. He caught the 
spirit of the hour, and conceived the magic 
plan that was to bring order out of chaos, 
dissipate the fears of the lovers of freedom, 
and rescue a young State from the curse, 
whose dark shadow Avas then passing over its 
plains. On the instant, he made known his 
plan. By many It was lightly thought of, be- 
cause it was so simple. Others would rather 
wait to see how it was likely to work. The 
doubters were as plenty as they always are 
at such times. But Mr. Thayer possessed a 



6 



woiidorful power of vmrk; and, as an English- 
man woiilil say, work generally accomplishes 
the end sought for. 

The lirst step he took was to procure tne 
charter of an '' Emigrant Aid Society " from 
the Legislature, having ah-eady enlisted the 
sympathy and co-operation of many of the 
leading men of the State. To show that this 
movement was, in no sense, a political, but 
rather a social and economic one, from the 
start, it is sufficient to state, that among the 
original corporators to whom this grant was 
made by the Legislature, appear the names 
of Col. Isaac Davis, of Worcester ; and Gen. 
J. S. Whitney, of Springfield. lion. A. x\. 
Lawrence, of Boston, likewise lent it his aid 
in a large and effective amount of ready 
money, as is well remembered by all. 

Having obtained his charter, the next step 
to be pursued by JMr. Thayer was to excite and 
direct public sentiment in favor of his plan. 
The people wanted nothing so much as to 
make Kansas a free State, but they were in 
the dark about the modus operandi. If they 
could be con\inced that there was a way by 
which they could compass their ardent desire, 
they Avould seize hold of it without any hesi- 
tation. To enlist the confidence of men every- 
where in his project, — the grand project 
of Organized Emigration, — Mr. Thayer left 
home and business, and perseveringly gave 
himself to the work of elucidating his scheme 
before the people and pressing it home to 
their convictions. While engaged in this la- 
bor, — for it was indeed labor, — he travelled 
thousands of miles and addressed hundreds 
of meetings, holding conferences with inquir- 
ing men at all places and points within his 
reach, and preaching, without intermission, 
his theory that organized free labor could 
easily overthrow organized slave labor, if the 
experiment was once but fairly tried. Li 
good time, he beheld his work prosper. Emi- 
grants began to flock around the standard he 
had so boldly erected in lai'ge numbers. They 
rallied, not as a mob, but in disciplined ranks 
and masses. From the offices of emigration, 
which were established at ditferent points, 
parties were forwarded straight to the ground 
in dispute, one following close at the heels of 
another, all of them orderly and resolute, all 
bent on fulfilling the destiny of actual settlers, 
and, taken as a whole, the finest specimen of 
emigrating valor and virtue ever seen in his- 
tory. It was indeed, to look back upon it 



now, a wonderful feat for the brain of a single 
man to accomplish. 

The various parties of Free-State settlers 
began now to pour into Kansas without in- 
terruption. In a very brief period of time, 
many thousands of persons — the flower of 
our States — were securely established on the 
soil, having staked out their claims and be- 
come real residents and owners. Had this 
work been deferred until the next spring 
only, Kansas would have been lost, by uni- 
versal admission ; for the Missouri lodges were 
organizing as rapidly as possible, and it was 
the design of the prime movers in the plan 
to throw them across the line into the Terri- 
tory in dispute, just as soon as the next season 
opened. In that case, it would have been 
idle for the men of the north and the east to 
start at all ; their labor would have come to 
nought even before it was begun. The se- 
cret of the free-labor success was, that by the 
rapidity and compactness of its emigration, 
under the scheme of Eli Thayer, the work 
was done before the other side had time to 
think of it. They invited a free contest, and 
they were beaten. The intended crossing 
over the line, on the following spring, was 
not undertaken. The battle had clearly gone 
against them. This they confessed by their 
acts of retaliatory violence and their loud ex- 
pressions of indignation. So incensed were 
they, even before the deed was known to be 
done, they offered a reward for the head of 
Eli Thayer, the author and inventor of the 
scheme by which their game Avas thus blocked, 
and kept the reward standing for some time 
at the head of their newspapers ! Had they 
secured his caput, they would have been like- 
ly to obtain a good deal more than they bar- 
gained for. He would have taught them a 
practical point in the art of emigration, flir 
beyond any they yet knew. Their plan was 
based on force, absolute and brutal ; Thayer 
sent forward the saw-mill and grist-mill as his 
pioneer, and men followed close after steam. 
Davy Atchison, seeing one of these steam 
mills passing on one day, remarked, with 
an oath, to a friend standing by, " There 
goes another Yankee city!" And he was 
right. The steam mill drew a whole town- 
ship close behind it, including a school, a 
church, and a newspaper ; and this was Eli 
Thayer's fortunate and timely discovciy. 

The result in Kansas having proved so 
auspicious to Free Labor, the attention of 



^/; 



f 



iMr. Thavcr's follow citizens was afterwards ' mon consent, it established !Mr. Thayer's 
drawn to Lini as a peculiarly fit man to re- 1 fame." Ilis object, in the speech, was to 
present them in Congress. Judge Chapin j hint a plan for organized emigration from the 
happened to be the nominee of the party, and I North to Nicaragua, — in other words, for 



had accepted the nomination ; only eight 
days before the election, however, he felt com- 
])elled, for good reasons, to decline the posi- 
tion. Tiiis left the Republicans of the AVor- 
cester district in a bad plight ; and, for the 
moment, it seemed as if there was no chance 
of defeating Col. DcWitt, the deservedly 
popular candidate of the Americans. Many 
despaired and would give up the battle; but 
a few determined to go on and make another 
nomination. Mr. Eli Thayer was at once 
waited on by the Committee to whom ^Ir. 
Ciiapin's resignation had been sent, and asked 
if he would consent to run in his place. " Yes," 
was the ready and decisive answer. They 
reminded him how short the time was to elec- 
tion day, and told him what kind of work, 
and how much of it, he would be expected to 
perform, in order to secure success. This 
only excited his courage the more. " Fur- 
nish me with facilities for travelling through 
tlic district," said Mr. Thayer, " and I will 
be ready to speak four times in every twenty- 
lour hours ! " Tlie Committee were surprised. 
They pronfised, however, to do their part. It 
is a matter of jjolitical history that Eli Tiiay- 
er did his ; and he made nothing of putting 
twenty miles between his afternoon and 
first evening addresses. lie was all game, 
and all endurance. It was simply impossible 
to defeat sudi a man, for no other could hold 
out against liim. 

He was triumphantly elected to Congress 
by the people of his district, and entered up- 
on his duties as a national legislator, in De- 
cember of the year 1857. His entrance 
upon the floor of the House attracted much 
attention, fir all were eager to see the man 
whose single idea had been the instrument of 
redeeming Kansas from the hands of her 
enemies. I'robably many men then thought 
tliat the price set on his head was altogether 
loo low. 

His first speech in Congress was delivered 
on the 7th of January, 1858, on the Central 
American Question. All sides agreed that 
it produced a decided sensation. It was off 
the beaten track of Congressional discussion 
and disclosed a vein of freshness, originalit}-, 
and humor that was not looked for. The 
New York Tribune said of it, that " by com- 



Amerlcanizing Central America." It pro- 
duced such a surprise among those men 
from the Gulf States who think that Central 
America belongs exclusively to their own 
bailiwick, that they were puzzled, for a time, 
whether to laugh or swear. It was said that 
so rich a scene is rarely witnessed in Con- 
gress as presented itself during the delivery 
of that speech. AVithout remarking any fur- 
ther upon it, it is given herewith exactly as it 
was reported]. 



^Ir. Thayer said : — 

Mu. Chairman, — It is my purpose to of- 
fer an amendment to the resolution which is 
now before the Committee, for the purpose 
of widening the proposed investigation. I do 
not intend to discuss at all the topics which 
the Committee has been considering during 
the past three days. I am not here to con- 
sider Avhether !Mr. AYalker was legally or ille- 
gally arrested, or whether Commodore Pauld- 
ing is to be censured or applauded for his 
action. I shall express no sympathy with the 
course pursued by the President. I have no 
intention to discuss his position in relation to 
this matter, neither is it my purpose to enter 
the lists with the gentleman from Tennessee 
[Mr. iMaynardj, who eulogized the heroism 
of ^Ir. Walker — a man, who, claiming to be 
the President of Nicaragua, and to represent 
in his own person the sovereignty of that 
State, surrendered without a protest, and 
Avithout a blow, to a power upon his own soil, 
which he claimed to be an invading force. 
AVhether this be heroism, I shall not now in- 
quire. 

I thrust aside, for the present, all questions 
of legal technicality in this matter ; all the 
mysteries of the construction of the neutral- 
ity laws; all these questions which have en- 
grossed the attention of the House during the 
last three <lays, and concerning which every- 
body has been speaking, and nobody caring ; 
and I come to that great, paramount, tran- 
scendent question, about which everybody is 
caring and nobody is speaking : " How shall 
we Americanize Central America ? " 

It may be a matter of surprise that I pass 



8 



over two or three questions -vvliich, in tlieir 
natural order, seem to be antecedent to this 
one. And these questions are : First, Do 
we 7cis7i to Americanize Central America ? 
Secondly, Can we Americanize Central 
America? Thirdly, Shall we Americanize 
Central America V 

Kow, ]\Ir. Chairman. I say that whoever 
has studied the history of this country, and 
whoever knows the character of this people, 
and whoever can infer their destiny from 
tln'ir character and their history, knows that 
(liese three preliminary questions are already 
answered by the American people — that we 
do wish to iVmcricanizc Central America ; 
that we can Americanize Central America ; 
and tliat we f^hall Americanize Central Amer- 
ica. 

And now, ]\Ir. Chairman, in relation to the 
manner and agency. Hoio can we Ameri- 
canize Central America ? Shall we do it 
leixall}- and foirly, or illegally and unfairly ? 
Shall we do it by conferring a benefit on the 
peojile of Central America, or shall we do it 
by conquest, by robbery, and violence V Shall 
we do it without abandoning national laws, 
and Avithout violating our treaty stipulations ? 
Sliall we do it in accordance with the law of 
nations and the laws of the United States, or 
shall we do it by force, blood, and fire ? 

Now, IMr. Chairman, my position is this: 
tliat we will do it legally; that we will do it 
in accordance with the highest laws, human 
and divine. 

By tlie way, sir, I did agree with the gen- 
tleman from New York [IMr. Ilaskin], when 
he told us yesterday that he was not in favor 
of petit larceny ; but I did not agree with 
him when he said he was in favor of grand 
larceny. I regret that a Eeprcsentative of 
the people of the United States, in the Coun- 
cil Hall of the nation, should say to his con- 
stituents, to the nation, and to the world, that 
he and the Democratic party were " rather in 
favor of grand larceny." Larceny is larceny ; 
and you cannot say a meaner thing about it 
than to call it by its own name. I am pained 
that this report has gone forth, that any party, 
or that any individual in this House, or con- 
nected Avith this Government, is in favor of 
grand larceny or petit larceny. Larceny, 
grand or petit, is not only disgraceful, but is 
absolutely and utterly contemptible. We do 
not go for tlie acquisition or Americanization 
of territory by larceny of any kind whatever, 
but fairly, openly, and honorably. 



Then, sir, by Avhat agency may we thus 
Americanize Central America ? I reply to 
the cjuestion, by the power of organized emi- 
gration. That is abundantly able to give us 
Central America as soon as we want it. We 
could have Americanized Central America 
half a dozen times by this power within the 
last three years, if there had been no danger 
or apprehension of meddlesome or vexatious 
Executive interference. But if we are to 
use this mighty power of organized emigra- 
tion, Ave Avant a different kind of neutrality 
laAvs from those which we now have ; and, 
therefore, I am desirous that this Committee 
shall recommend something Avhich shall not 
subject us to the misconstruction of the Presi- 
dent of the United States, or to his construc- 
tion at all. I Avant these neutrality Liavs so 
plain that every man may knoAv Avhether he 
is in the right or In the Avrong, whether he is 
violating those laws or is not violating them. 
For, Mr. Chairman, with our neAv-fashioned 
kind of emigration, Avith our organized emi- 
gration, Avhich goes in colonies, and therefore 
must, of necessity, to some extent, resemble 
a military organization, there is great danger 
that a President with a dim Intellect may 
make a mistake, and subject to harassing and 
vexatious delays, and sometimes to loss and 
injury, a peaceful, (julet colony, going out to 
settle In a neighboring State. 

Mr. Chairman, I can illustrate this position. 
You, sir, remember that in the year 1856, 
Avhen it Avas had travelling across the State 
of Missouri, on the Avay to Kansas, our col- 
onics Avent through the State of loAva, and 
through the Territory of Nebraska. These 
were peaceful, quiet colonies, going to settle 
in the Territory of Kansas, by that long and 
wearisome journey, because it Avas had travel- 
ling through the State of Missouri. You re- 
member that one of these colonies of organ- 
ized emigrants, AvhIch Avent from JNIalne and 
Massachusetts, and from various other North- 
ern States, Avas arrested just as it Avas passing- 
over the southern boundary of the Territory 
of Nebraska, on its Avay to its future home in 
Kansas. It Avas a peaceful, quiet colony, go- 
ing out with Its emigrant w^agons, " all in a 
roAv," and, therefore, looking something like a 
military organization ; going out Avith their 
Avomen and their children, with sub-soil ploAvs 
Avith coulters a yard long [laughter], with 
pick-axes, with crowbars, Avith shovels, and 
with garden seeds. This beautiful colony was 



9 



arrested by the officials of the present Execu- 
tive's predecessor. It ■^vas by some mistake, 
no doubt. Perhaps he took the turnip-seed 
for powder; and I doubt whether the case 
would have been better if the President had 
been there himself This colony was arrested 
within our own dominion. It Avas not an emi- 
gration to a foreign country, and there was 
no danger of interference with the neutrality 
laws. These quiet, peaceful colonists, be- 
cause their wagons went in a row for mutual 
defence, through the wild, uncultivated Ter- 
ritory of Xt'braska, where there were Indians, 
they were arrested as a military organization. 
"We do not want, hereafter, either within the 
limits of the United States or without them, 
any such meddlesome and vexatious inter- 
ference by the executive power of this Gov- 
ernment. Therefore, I say, let us have some 
neutrality laws that can be understood. If 
there had been no apprehensions in the North 
about the neutrality laws, if we had not ex- 
pected that whatever emigration we might 
have fitted out for Central America would 
have been arrested within the marine league 
of the harbor of Boston, why, we would have 
colonized Central America years ago, and 
had it ready for admission into the Union be- 
fore this time. We want a modification or 
an elucidation of the neutrality laws, and I 
trust that it will be the duty of the committee 
so to report. 

Before I proceed to consider the power and 
benefits of this system of organized emigra- 
tion, and the reason why it ought not to be 
rejected by this IIousi;, I Avill proceed, as 
briefly as I can, to show the interests which 
the Northern portion of this country has in 
Americanizing Central America, as contrast- 
ed with the interests which the Southern 
portion has in doing the same thing. I come, 
then, to speak of the immense interests which 
the Northern States have in this projjosed en- 
terprise. I am astonished, that so far in this 
debate the advocates for Americanizing Cen- 
tral America seem to be mostly from those 
States which border on the Gulf of Mexico. 
As yet, I have heard no man from the North- 
cm States advocating the same thing. Let 
us look at the interests of the Northern States 
in this question, and then at those of the 
Southern States. 

These Northern States are, as the States 
of Northern Europe were designated by 
Tacitus, officina gentium. " the manufactory 



of nations." We can make one state a year. 
In the last three years we have colonized 
almost wholly the Territory of Kansas. Wo 
have furnished settlers to INIinnesota and 
Nebraska, and the Lord knows where, but 
we have not exhausted one-half of our natur-. 
al increase. We have received accessions to 
our numbers in that time, from foreign coun- 
tries, of more than one million of souls, and 
now we have no relief; we are worse off to- 
day than we were when we began to colonize 
Kansas. We must have an outlet some- 
where for our surplus population. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

Sir, I have a resolution in my pocket, 
which I have been carrying about for days, 
waiting patiently for an opportunity to pre- 
sent it in this House, instructing the Com- 
mittee on Territories to report a bill organiz- 
ing and opening for settlement the Indian 
Territory. iNIr. Chairman, I came to this 
conclusion with reluctance, that we must 
have the Indian Territory. But necessity 
knows no law. We must go somewhere. 
Something must be opened to the descendants 
of the Pilgrims. [Laughter.] Why, sir, just 
look at it. We are crammed In between the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The bounding 
billows of our emigration are dashing fiercely 
against both sides of the Rocky Mountains. 
Obstructed now by these barriers, this west- 
ward moving tide begins to set back. Will 
it flow towards Canada ? Not at all. It 
has already begun to flow over the " Old Do- 
minion" [laughter], and into other States. 
Missouri is almost inundated with it. We 
cannot check this tide of flowing emigration. 
You might as well try to shut out from this 
continent, by curtains, the light of the auro- 
ra borealis. No such thing can be accom- 
plished. This progress must be onward, and 
we must have territory. We must have ter- 
ritory ; and I think it most opportune that 
the proposition seems to be before the coun- 
try to Americanize Central America. A 
better time could not be ; for, in addition to 
the population which we now have, which is 
Immense in the Northern States, as I shall 
show you in proceeding, this financial ])res- 
sure In the East, and In the different nations 
of Europe, will send to our shores in the year 
1858 not less than half a million of men. In 
addition to that we have two hundred and 
fifty thousand of our own population, who 
will change localities in that time. Then, 



10 



sir, there are seven liundred and fifty thou- 
sand men to be prepared for, somewlicre, in 
the year 1858 — men enoui^h, sir, to make 
eiiiht States, if we only had Territories in 
wliich to ])ut them, and if we only use them 
economically [laughter], as we are sure to 
do by this system of organized emigration. 

Now, could anything be more opportune, 
at this time, than to have this project sub- 
mitted to us, of opening Central America to 
settlement? I assure you, if the Committee 
Avill report anj' bill which will enable the 
people of the North, without lai-ceny of any 
kind, without tyranny of any kind, to settle 
that country, I will jwstpone my resolution 
for the opening of the Indian Territory, at 
least until the next session of Congress. 

But it is not only for the purpose of fur- 
nishing an outlet for our immense population 
in the North that I now advocate the Amer- 
icanizing of Central America. The inter- 
ests of commerce, as well as this great argu- 
ment of necessity, are on our side. Who 
has the trade beyond Central America ? 
We have whale fisheries in the Northern 
Ocean, which build up great cities upon the 
eastern shore of Massachusetts. We have 
trade Avith Oregon and California, with the 
Sandwich Islands, and the western coast of 
South Amei-ica. We are opening a trade, 
destined to be an immense trade, with the 
Empires of China and Japan, and we must of 
necessity have in Central America certain 
fiictors and certain commercial agencies, who, 
in a very few years, with their families and 
relatives and dependants, will make a dense 
population in Central America. I say, then, 
that for the interests of commerce we want 
Central America Americanized. This com- 
mercial interest is, unfortunately, a sectional 
interest in these States. It is, emphatically, a 
Northern interest; and therefore, as a North- 
ern man, I advocate especially that Central 
America should be Americanized. 

Now, sir, I said I was astonished that gen- 
tlemen who come from States bordering upon 
the Gulf, had advocated this project, and not 
the Representatives who come from Northern 
States. Let us sec the reason why the North 
should be more zealous than the South in 
this movement. In the State of Massachusetts 
we have one hundred and twenty-seven peo- 
ple to a square mile, by the census of 1850. 
In the State of Rhode Island we have one 
hundred and twelve to the sciuare mile, by 



the same census. In the State of Connecticut 
we have seventy-nine. In the State of New 
York we have sixty-five. So, you see, it Avas 
not fiction, it was not poetry, not a stretch of 
the imagination, when I told you that the 
descendants of the Pilgrims were in a tight 
place. [Laughter.] 

But how is it with the States which border 
upon the Gulf? Look at it and see. They 
have, some of them, eighty-nine hundredths 
of a man to the square mile. [Laughter.] In 
another one we have one and the forty-eight 
hundredth part of a man to the square mile ; 
and, taking them altogether, we have just 
about three men to the square mile in all 
those States which border upon the Gulf of 
Mexico. 

Now, sir, it would be folly for me to argue, 
and there is no kind of reason for supposing, 
that these States expect to do any thing about 
colonizing Central America. They cannot 
afford to lose a man. They had better give 
away two thousand dollars than to lose a sin- 
gle honest, industi'ious citizen. They can- 
not afford it. I have left out of this calcula- 
tion, to be sure, the enumeration of the 
slaves in those States, for the gentleman from 
Tennessee [Mr. Maynard] inibrmed us that 
the question of Slavery did not come into 
this argument pi-operly, and I agree with 
him there. I think he may agree with me, 
that by no possibility can slavery ever be es- 
tablished in Central America. That is my 
belief. Just fix j-our neutrality laws, and we 
will fill up Central America before 18C0 
sufficiently to be comfortable. 

Mr. IMayxakd. With the pcrmis.^ion of 
the gentleman, I desire to ask him whether 
he will pledge himself for his constituents, 
and for all those he represents, that Avhen 
they get down there tliey will not make 
slaves of the people they find there ? 

Mr. Thayer. Certainly I will do it ; and 
I will say more on that subject hereafter. I 
will say to the gentlemen upon the other side 
who have advocated this right of emigration, 
and have no personal interest in this matter, 
that they can have no pecuniary interest in 
it, for they have no men to spare for this en- 
terprise. And especially do I honor the 
gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Quitman], 
who professed to be moved by arguments of 
philanthropy in relation to this question, and 
who maintained that the jieople of Central 
America were oppressed, that they needed our 



^^-^ 



11 



assistance, and that it was conferring a bene- of God's footstool. If we can form a company, 
fit upon them to sen<l out colonies among or a number of companies, which can control 
them to aid them to get rid of their oppres- the emigration of this country, — the foreign 
sors. This is more tlian patriotism. It ap- i emigration and native emigration, — I tell 
proaches universal brotherhood. I am glad , you, sir, that that company, or those compa- 
t liat that gentleman is defending the rights of j nies, will have more power than any potentate 
emigration. No man prizes those rights j or emperor upon the face of the earth ; and 
more highly than I do. I think that I under- i that company, or those companies, may laugh 
stand their power and their value, and I am | at politicians ; they may laugh, sir, at the 
glad to welcome among the list of political j President and his Cabinet ; at the Supreme 
re<>-enerators, the gentleman from ^Mississippi l Court, and at Congress ; for all these powers 
with such large, wide, and noble views upon j of the Government, great and mighty as they 
tliis (luestion. I do not here endorse his \ are, can do nothing, in accordance with the 



wliole speech. I did not hear the whole of 
it. I do not know what he said about Mr. 
AValher. whether he defends him, or whether 
he does not. For myself, I do not say that I 
defend him, or that I do not, at this time. I 
wait for the report of our committee, to know 
what are the facts in this case, and whether 
he is fit to be defended or not. 



Constitution of this land, which can in any 
way interfere with our progress, or prevent 
our making cities, and states, and nations, 
wherever and whenever we please. Then, 
sir, there can be no doubt about the power of 
this agency, which, I tell you, is the right one 
for us to make use of in getting Central 
America if we want it, or in Americanizing 



Now, sir, I am rejoiced that I have found Central America, as we are sure to do. 



aid and comfort in a great political missionary 
movement from a quarter where I least c.v 



jS'ow, Mr. Chairman, I have said nothing 
about annexino; Central America to the Unit- 



pectcd it. This argument of [)hilanthropy ed States. For myself, I care nothing about 
is sulUciently potent with the South ; while I , it, and I do not know whether the jjeople of 
will not deny that it is always more or less j this country are ready for that proposition 
potent with the North, perhaps not so potent ! yet. I think, however, they would rather 
with the North as with tlie South — very like- j annex a thousand square leagues of territory 
h- we are more material and less spiritual — ; than to lose a single sciuare foot. To be sure, 
but still, I say, it has some power at the ! sir, we have a few men in the North who 
North. We do not live so near the sun as | honestly hate this Union. I will not criticise 
do those gentlemen who border on the Gulf; i their views. I will not condemn them for 
but we live near enough to the sun to have j their views. ' They have a right to cherish 
some warmth in our hearts, and the appeals just what views they please in relation to this 
of [)hilaiithropy to us are not made in vain, [question. Sir, there are still a larger nuin- 

15ut,iii addition to that, just look at it, sir! j ber of sour and disappointed politicians, who, 
hi addition to that great argument of phi Ian- though they do not profess hatred to this 
thropy, we have not only the argument of Union, do, to a certain extent, profess indif- 
necessity, but the argument of making money ; i ference as to its continuance. But the great 
and when you take those three arguments, \ and overwhelming majority of the i)eople of 
and combine them, you make a great motive j the North, sir, as! a unit, are determined that 
power, which is suflicient, in ordinary cases, i no force, internal or external, shall ever Avrest 
to move Northern men, though they are not from the jurisdiction of the United States a 
very mobile nor very fickle. single square foot of our territory, unless it 

So much, ^Ir. Chairman, for the compar- first be baptized in blood and fire. That is 
ison of interests between the Northern and the sentiment of the great majority of the 
Southern people of these United States in people of the North, — that no portion of the 
relation to the Americanizing of Central territory of this Government shall ever be re- 



America. 

I come now to discuss, briefly, the power 
and benefits of this new mode of emigration. 



leased i'rom our possession. We understand 
that this Union is a partnership for life, and 
that the bonds that hold us together cannot 



And, sir, what is its power ? I tell you its by any fiituity be sundered until this great 
power is greater than that which is wielded , Government is first extinguished and its 
by any potentate or emperor upon the face \ power annihilated. That, sir, is our senti- 



12 



ment about the Union, and such may be the 
jircriont sentiment about annexation. But I 
have no doubt Avhat the future sentiment of 
the country -vvill be about annexation. I have 
no doubt we will have Central America in 
this Government, and all between this and 
Central America also. 

Well, sir, we have now come to the grand 
missionary age of the world, in which we do 
not send our preachers alone, perplexing 
people who are in ignorance and barbarism 
with abstract theological dogmas; but with 
the i)reachers we send the church, we send 
the school, we send the mechanic and the 
farmer ; Ave send all that makes up great and 
flourishing communities ; we send the powers 
that build cities ; we send steam-engines, sir, 
which are the greatest apostles of liberty that 
this country has ever seen. That is the 
modern kind of missionary emigration, and it 
has wonderful power on this continent, and 
is destined to have on the woi-ld, too, for it is 
just as good against one kind of evil as 
another ; and it can just as well be exerted 
against idol worship in Hindostan and China, 
as against oppression and desjiotlsm in Cen- 
tral America. 

But we take the countries that are nearest 
first ; and now we propose to use this mighty 
power in originating a nation in tpiick time 
for Central America. We read of a time 
when " a nation shall be born in a da}'." I 
think it may be done in some such way as 
this. By tliis method of emigration the j^io- 
neer does not go into the wilderness 

"Alone, unfriended, melanclioly, slow, 
Dragging at each remove a length'ning cliain," 

stealing away from the institutions of religion 
and education, himself and family ; but Chris- 
tianity herself goes hand in hand with the 
pioneer ; and not Christianity alone, but the 
offspring of Christianity, an awakened intel- 
ligence, and all the inventions of which she 
is the mother ; creating all the differences be- 
tween an advanced and enlightened commu- 
nity and one in degradation and ignorance. 
Sir, in years gone by, our emigration has 
ever tended toward barbarism ; but now, by 
this method, it is tending to a higher civiliza- 
tion than we have ever witnessed. Why, sir, 
by this plan, a new community starts on as 
high a plane as the old one had ever arrived 
at; and leaving behind the dead and decayed 
branches which encumbered the old, with the 



vigorous energies of youth it presses on and 
ascends. Sir, such a State will be the State 
of Kansas, eclipsing in its progress all the 
other States of this nation, because it Avas 
colonized in this way. The people, in this 
way, have not to serve half a century of i:)ro- 
bation in semi-barbarism. They begin with 
schools and churches, and you Avill see what 
the effect is upon communities that are so 
established. 

But I will speak now of that which consti- 
tutes the peculiar strength of emigration of 
this kind ; and that is (he projit of the thinr/. I 
have shown you how efficient it is, and I Avill 
now show you how the method works, to some 
extent. It is profitable for every one con- 
nected with it ; it is profitable to the people 
Avhcre the colonies go ; it is profitable to the 
jieojjle of the colonics ; and it is profitable to 
the company, which is the guiding star and 
the protecting power of the colonies. It does 
good eveiy where. It does evil nowhere. 

Sir, you cannot resist a power like this. A 
good man often feels regret when he knows 
that by promoting a good cause he is at the 
same time sacrificing his own means of doing 
good, and is becoming weaker and Aveaker 
every day. It is a great draAvback upon 
beneficent enterprises, even upon philan- 
thropic and Christian enterprises, that the 
men Avho sustain them are lessening their own 
means of doing good by it. Sir, it is a great 
mistake to suppose that a good cause can only 
be sustained by the life-blood of itj friends. 
But Avhen a man can do a magnanimous act, 
when he can do a decidedly good thing, and 
at the same time make money by it, all his 
faculties are in harmony. [Laughter.] You 
do not need any great argument to induce 
men to take such a position, if you can only 
induce them to believe that such is the effect. 
Well, sir, such is the effect ; and now let us 
apply it to the people of Central America. 
What reason will they have to complain, if 
Ave send among them our colonies, organized 
in this Avay Avith their sub-soil ploAvs, their 
ci'ow-bars, their hoes, their shovels, and their 
garden-seeds ? What reason aa'IU they have 
to complain ? Why, the fact is, that, unless 
our civilization is superior to theirs, the effort 
Avould, in the beginning, be afiiilure; it never 
can make one inch of jirogress. Then, sir, 
if we succeed at all, Ave succeed in planting a 
civilization there which is superior to theirs ; 
Avc plant that or none. It is impossible for au 



inferior civilization to supplant a superior 
civilization except by violence; and it is al- 
most impossible to do it in that way. 

AVell, sii", if we give them a better civiliza- 
tion, the tendency of that better civiHza- ; 
tion is to increase the value of real estate ; j 
for the value of property, the value of real \ 
estate, depends ujwn the character of the \ 
men who live ufjon the land, as well as upon j 
the number of men who live upon it. Xow, 
sir, we either make an absolute failure in this | 
thing, and do not trouble them at all, or we 
give them a better civilization, and, in addi- 
tion to that, we give them wealth. 

Thus, sir, with bands of steel we bind the 
people of Central America to us and to our 
interests, by going among them in this way ; 
and they cannot have reason to complain, 
nor will they complain. If we had approached 
them in tliis way two years ago, without this 
miserable meddlesome method, induced and 
wan-anted, or supposed to be warranted, by 
the neutrality laws, we would have filled Cen- 
tral America to overflowing by this time, and 
would have had with us the blessings of every 
native citizen in that portion of country. 

Xow, sir, if such is the way, if such is tnc 
[)Ower, if such is the effect of this method, to 
tiie emigrants, and to the people among whom 
they settle, wliy should we not now adopt it 
in refererK.e to Central America V And what 
is the metlioil ? Why, it is as plain and sim- 
ple as it can be. It is just t6 form a moneyed 
corporation which sliall have two hundred 
thousand dollars capital; which shall then 
obtain and spread information through the 
country, by publications, indicating what are 
the natural resources of Central America, and 
the inducements to emigrate thither ; show- 
ing how it is situated in relation to commerce, 
and how, of necessity, there uuist speedily be 
built upon that soil a flourishing Common- 
wt'alth. Tfien you have to apply a portion 
of these means to buying land and to sending 
out steam engines, and to building some hotels 
to accoumiodate the people Avho go there, 
and also some receiving houses for the emi- 
grants. Establish there, and encourage there 
the establishment of the mechanic arts, and 
I tell you that every steam engine you send 
there will be the scat of a flourishing town : 
every one will be an argument for people to 
go there ; for they talk louder than individu- ■ 
als a thousand times, and they are more con- 
vincing a thousand times, especially to an ig- | 



z^y 



norant and degraded people, than any thing 
men can say, because the argument is ad- 
dressed to the senses ; it makes them feel 
comfortable; it gives them good clothes; it 
gives them money. These are the arguments 
to address to an ignorant and degraded 
people, and not cannon balls, or rifle balls, 
nor yet mere absh'act dogmas about liberty 
or theology. Then let this company be or- 
ganized so soon as you fi.x these neutralit}- 
laws so that we can get ofT without these 
vexatious executive interferences. [Laugh- 
ter.] Then we shall sec how the thing will 
work in Centi-al America. 

But, sir, I expect, when the people of the 
North shall hear that I am taking this view 
of the question, that the timid will be in- 
tensely terrified, and say that we are to have 
more slave States annexed to the Union. I 
have not the slightest apprehension of that 
result. It may be said that Yankees, when 
they get down into Central America, will, if 
the climate is suited for it, make use of slave 
labor. I have heard that argument before ; 
and it has been asserted that the Yankees 
who go into slave States oftentimes turn slaAC- 
holders, and outdo the Southern men them- 
selves. I have no doubt that they outdo 
them, if they do any thing in that line at all. 
[Laughter.] The Yankee has never become 
a slaveholder unless he has been forced to 
it by the social relations of the slave State 
where he lived ; and the Yankee who has be- 
come a slaveholder, has, every day of his 
life thereafter, felt in his very bones the bad 
economy of the sj'stem. It could not be 
otherwise. Tiilk about our Yankees, who go 
to Central America, becoming slaveholders ! 
Why, sir, we can buy a negro power, in a 
steam engine, for ten dollars [laughter], and 
we can clothe and feed that j^ower for one 
year for five dollai"s [renewed laughtei*] ; 
and are we the men to give $1000 for an 
African slave, and SI 50 a year to feed and 
clothe him ? 

'No, sir. Setting aside the arguments 
about sentimentality and about philanthropy 
on this question, setting aside all poetry and 
fiction, he comes right down to the practical 
(juestion — is it profitable V The Yankee re- 
plies, " not at all." Then there is no danger of 
men wlio go from Boston to Central America 
ever owning slaves, unless they are compelled 
to by their social relations there. If a man 
goes from Boston into Louisiana, and nobodv 



14 



■will speak to him unloss he has a slave , no- 
body will invite him to a social entertainment | 
unless he owns a negro ; and if he cannot | 
get a wife unless he has a negro ; then, sir, 
vei-y likely he may make up his mind to own 
a negro. [Laughter.] But I tell you that 
he will repent of it every day while he has 
him. He cannot whistle " Yankee Doodle " 
with the same relish as before. He cannot 
whittle in the same free and easy manner. 
He used to cut with the grain, with the knife- 
edgi! from him ; 7iow, he cuts across the grain 
with the knife-edge towards him. The doleful 
fact that he owns a negro, is a tax upon every 
pulsation of his heart. Poor man ! There 
is no inducement for the Yankees to spread 
slavery in Central America, and there is no 
power in any other part of the country to do 
it. Therefore, most fearlessly do I advocate 
the Americanizing of Centi'al America. We 
must have some outlet tor our overwhelming 
population. Necessity knows no law ; and 
if we cannot have Central America, we must 
have the Indian Territory ; we must have 
something ; we are not exhausted in our 
power of emigration ; we are worse olf than 
we were before the opening of Kanzas. 
Not one-half of our natural Increase has been 
exhausted in colonizing that Territory, and 
furnishing ])eople for Oregon and Washing- 
ton. We might, as I told you, make eight 
States a year, if we only used our forces eco- 
r»>mically ; and we will use them economi- 
cally by establishing, not for the present time 
only, but for all coming time, this system of 
organized emigration. Just as fiist as this 
has become understood in the country — just 
as iar as it is known to the pcoi)le — not a 
single man who has any sense will emigrate 
in any other way than by colonies. Just 
look at the difference between men going in 
a colony and going alone. Suppose a man 
goes to Central America, and settles there 
alone; what is his inlluence upon real estate 
by settling there alone ? Tliei-e is no appre- 
ciable difference from what it was before; 
but if he goes there with five hundred men 
from the city of Boston to establish a town, 
by that very act he has made himself wealthy. 
I can point to numerous examples of the 
kind. Hence this making money by organ- 
ized emigration is not going to be speedily 
rellnipilshed. Depend upon it that we have 
only begun to use it, and that we have not 



used it with the efficiency with which it will 
be used in a year to come. 

Now, sir, for these reasons I hope that the 
committee to which this question shall be 
referred, will so modify and elucidate the 
neutrality laws, that we shall not hereafter 
be subjected to this executive interference. 
And, in accordance with the views I have 
expressed, I now offer the following amend- 
ment : 

"And, also, that said committee report, so 
far as they may be able, the present social and 
political condition of the people of Nicaragua, 
and Avhether they invite colonies from the 
United States to settle among them ; and, 
also, whether the soil, climate, and other nat- 
ural advantages of that country are such as 
to encourage emigration thither from the 
Northern States of this Confederacy." 

Now, ]\Ir. Chairman, I will state briefly my 
reasons for submitting that amendment. The 
gentleman from Mississippi (^Ir. Quitman), 
referred to the social and political condition 
of the people of Central America, ,as a pro- 
per basis, I think he said, for our action. 
Therefore, with open arms, do we welcome 
that gentleman and his associates to our no- 
ble brotherhood of missionary political regen- 
erators. For myself, I am Avilling to take 
the gentleman's words about the necessity of 
something being done to aid these people ; 
but in grave matters of legislation like this, 
the connnittee having the subject in charge 
should first fully investigate in reference to 
the matter suggested by my amendment. 

I do not intend any oU'ensive sectionalism 
by using the word Northern ; that the com- 
mittee should inquire whether the natural 
advantages of soil and climate of Central 
America were such as to invite emigration 
thither from the Northern States. I so 
phrased the amendment because, as I have 
shown you, the Northern Statics are the only 
ones which can furnish emigration that would 
be of any consequence to Central America. 
\ We would be glad to receive Avhatever help 
the States on the Gulf could give us, but 
it is impossible for them to give much help in 
this work. And because the Northern States 
1 have tiie power in this matter, and because 
I the Southern States have not the power, I 
have used the words, that the committee shall 
in(juire specially whether the climate and 
the soil are such as to encouraire cniiuration 



15 



X6 



to Central America from tbe Northern States. 
If, however, there be objection to it, I will 
strike out the word '' Northern," and leave 
the inquiry to be general. 



A more withering reply was never made 
to the fillbusteros of the country. This 
speech met them on their own ground, where 
they never expected to be reached. They 
thought of the populous North, pouring forth 
its surplus population after an organized sys- 
tem, and tliey trembled for their chances. 
Where numbers conquer, they knew they 
must go down before them. Mr. Thayer's 
peculiar manner, too, told as effectively as 
his mailer. The llcprcsentatives' Hall was 
alive all the while with laughter. But llie 
hand-writing which this single speech served 
to bring out upon tiie wall read thus: Emi- 
Gi{.\Tiox. The speaker stood forth the ac- 
knowledged apostle of " Manifest Destiny.'' 
He preached only the Civilization of Labor. 

On the 2Jth of :March, 1858, Mr. Thayer 
delivered another speech on the floor, en- 
titled, " The Suicide of Slavery; " full of the 
same characteristics as his previous speech, 
but more compact and solid, more thorough!}' 
considered, and requiring, from the nature of 
the theme, a strain of j)hi]osO[)hic reflection 
in its treatment, yet it flashed with bright 
streaks of sarcasui, was alive with humor, and 
challengi'd serious attention on all sides. It 
was a caj)ital cflbrt, and developed the Emi- 
gration theory in a way likely to make a per- 
manent im])ression. But the passage rela- 
tive to the South as a Churcii, and what it 
had been doing for the Africans, is one of 
the finest pieces of satire we ever met with 
in our reading of oratory. Theodore Parker 



on this floor, within the last two weeks. But 
I shall make no defence. There are some 
things which I never attempt to defend. 
Among these are the Falls of Niagara, the 
"White Mountains of New Hampshire, the 
Atlantic Ocean, Plymouth Rock, Bunker 
Hill, and the history of Massachusetts. Any 
man may assail either or all of them with 
perfect impunity, so far as I am concerned. 
And words of disparagement or vituperation 
directed against either of these objects, by 
any assailant, excite in me feelings very dif- 
ferent from those of indignation — whether 
the assailant comes with a bow as long as 
that of the bold Robin Hood, or with a bow 
of shorter range, like that of the gentleman 
from Alabama []Mr. Shorter] [Laughter.] 
But I de2)recate the disposition that impels 
these shafts against the sister States of this 
confederacy. I deprecate this sectional 
animosity whenever and wherever I see it 
evinced. I have heard too much of the ag- 
gression of the North and of the aggressions 
of the South, in the past, to be very much in 
love with either of these ideas. I have never 
been accustomed to speak of the aggressions 
of the slave power, and I have no purpose of 
doing it now or hereafter. If the one-hun- 
dreth part of the people of this country can 
make dangerous aggressions on the rights and 
interests of the other ninety-nine hundredth 
parts of the people, either by the force of 
stri-ngth or by the arts of diplomacy, I assure 
you that I will be the last man to complain 
of it. I think that this slavery question Is al- 
together too small a question to disturb so 
"reat a people as inhabit the L'nited States 
of America. 

For myself, I was always In favor of popu- 
lar sovereignty, rightly so called. I am ready, 
for one, to agree to-day that the Territories 



said of it, — " John Quincy Adams used sa- 
tire in his way, and that, too. quite powerful- 1 belon^in'T to this Government shall be open 
ly ; but his satire was quantitatively great, — i ^o settlement at any time, when Congress 
Mr. Thayer's is qualitatively nice and fine, j thinks fit so to oi)en them, and that the peo- 
There is no reply to such things. The ac- pj^ of ^11 parts of the country shall go into 
count of the trials, dangers, and sufferings of them, with the assurance oi" ah.'^olule and com- 
the South to convert the heathen, is masterly; i ^/^,/g nnn-inlervenlion ; with the assurance 
it is worthy of Dean Swifl, but it is finer and that whenever any chief executive, official, 
subtler tlian any thing I remember from him." j Qj. non-resident, shall interfere, by fraud or 

The following is the sjjeech itself : — j violence, in their affairs, he sliall either be 

i impeached or hanged ; with the assurance 

It may be expected, ]\Ir. Chairman, that at that when the people shall have the ratio of 
this time I should say something in defence ' representation required by law, and shall 
of the Pilgrims, and of the State of .Massachu- come to Congress with a Constitution, repub- 
setts; for'they have been repeatedly assailed' lican in form, they shall be admitted into the 



IG 



Union ad a State. This, sir, is popular sov- , 
crei'^nty, and it is what was practised in this 
country two centuries ago. 

The people of the Plymouth colony had 
the privilege of choosing their own Governor, 
;;nd of making their own laws. The same 
was true of t!ie New Haven colony, and of 
the colony of the Providence Plantations. 
They alway did it. I believe the Crown of 
England never appointed a Governor for 
these colonies ; certainly not for the last two. 
But were those people, without ever having 
exercised the right of self-government, bet- 
ter prepared to govern themselves than arc 
our people, educated under our State Gov- 
ernments, who go into our territoi'ies ? Why, 
then, should Ave continue to have an " Ahab 
to trouble Israel," while he lays the blame of 
his own misconduct upon the emigrant aid 
societies ? Why not cut off these Territories 
from all connection with the General Govern- 
ment, legislative or executive ? Then we 
shall have no more agitation in Congress, and 
no more contention in the Territories. But 
so long as this connection continues, so long 
as we have a President trying to bias by his 
appointments, and, perhaps, by the United 
States troops, the will of the people so long 
shall we have agitation, and we shall have 
enough of it. 

Well, sir, I have nothing to find fault about. 
I am very v/ell pleased with the present ten- 
dency of events. But, sir, there are those 
who are dissatisfied, and who are inclined to 
invoke a certain deity — I think a false deity 
— which presides over a portion of this Union; 
a deitv which has been invoked by great men 
on great OL'casioas, and by little men on little 
occasions, for a long time past — a deity in 
whose expected presence both the people and 
the polltielans have sometimes stood aghast — 
"when he," in prospect only, " from his hor- 
rid hair shook pestilence and war." This 
sulphurous god is Disunion. This Capitol 
Hill has been a veritable INIount Carmel for 
the last quarter of a century, upon which ex- 
periments have been tried with this bogus 
deity. One dcnj upon ]Mount Carmel was suf- 
ficient to determine the destiny of Baal and 
his prophets. But here, we, the most patient 
people in the world, witness these invocations 
year after year, with exemplary endurance, 
expecting that the great Is-to-be will some 
time come. And you and I, Mr. Chairman, 
even during the present session of Congress, 



have witnessed attempts to kindle here the 
fires upon the altar of Southern rights. But 
the sacrifice, the altar, and the spectators, 
were as cold as alabaster. The prophets only 
were warm ; but they were warm, not from 
the presence of the god, but from his absence. 
He does not make his appearance. The 
great Is-to-be docs not come. He has either 
gone on a very long journey, or else he is in 
a very deep sleep. 

Well, sir, shall we have this deity of Dis- 
union invoked forever ? Who is to blame ? 
If the North has given cause, what have we 
done ? What cause of disunion has ever ])ro- 
ceeded from us ? Have you not had every 
thing your own way ? Have we not let you 
have the Democratic party to use as you 
please V [Laughter.] Have you not had 
the Government for a long time ? And have 
we not let you use it just as you had a mind 
to ? We, sir, were busy about our commerce, 
extending it around the world ; about our rail- 
roads ; our Internal improvements; our col- 
leges, and all those things which Interest our 
people. We knew that you had a taste for 
governing, and that by the indulgence you 
might be gratified without serious Injury to 
us. For many years j'ou have had your own 
way, but now you come here and ci'y out 
" disunion." Why, what more can we do ? 

Well, It may be that we have encouraged 
a mistake on your part. It may be that we 
have given }ou some reason to suppose that 
this temjxirary courtesy of governing, which 
we have extended, was a permanent right. 
However, if you have fallen into that error, 
we will, perhaps, at some future time disabuse 
and correct jou. But ■whatever blame there 
is anywhere, whatever cause there Is for dis- 
union, must attach to the action of the slave 
power, commanding and controlling the De- 
mocratic party, and to no one else in the 
country. Therefore, at this time, I come 
with exultation— not, to be sure, with malig- 
nant exultation — to speak for a few moments 
upon the decline and fall of Slavery — nay, 
sir, further, upon the suicide of Slavery in 
this land. I will show you by what acts the 
two most important pillars of its support have 
been removed, and that the whole system of 
Slavery must therefore fall. And these two 
events have been accomplished, if not by its 
direct efforts, at least by the connivance of 
this same part}', impelled by this same con- 
trolling agency. 



xra 



17 



I will first sliow yon how the moral power 
of this institution has been destro}X'd, by 
what act, and then I will show you how and 
by what act its political power is forever 
doomed. But, sir, how did an institution 
like tJiis ever have a moral power ? is a ques- 
tion for us to examine. In the first place, 
we arc told by Southern men that we have a 
nation of heathen in our land ; and we are 
told by the same authority tliat we have an 
institution here for their regeneration. Now, 
5ir, if we have, from necessity, a nation of 
heathen in our land, and if Slaverj- is an in- 
stitution for their regeneration, it is very clear 
that Slavery has a moral powt'r. But, savs 
the gentleman from (Jleorgia [Mr. Gartrelfj, I 
speaking of negroes, " They are idle, disso- ' 
lute, improvident, lazy, uiuhrifty, who think 
not of to-morrow, who i)rovide but scantily ; 
iijr to-day." | 

I will also give you other proof Here it 
is : — I 

" Who would credit it, that in these years ' 
of benevolent and successful missionary effort 
III this Christian liepublic, there are over two 
millions of human Uings in the condition of 
heathen, and, in some respects, in a woi-se 
condition V From long-continued and close 
observation, we Ix-lievc their moral and re- 
ligious condition is such that they may justly 
be regarded as the heathen of this Christian 
country." — Committee of Synod of South Car- ! 
olina anil Georgia, in 1833. [ 

" After making all reasonable allowances, I 
our colored iwpulation can be considered,' 
at the best, but semi-healhens." — Kentuchj 
Union's Circular to the Minusters of the Gospel 
in Kentucky, 1834. 

" There seems to be an almost entire al> 
senee of moral principle among the mass of 
our colored population." — C. W. Gooch, Esq., 
Prize Essay on Agriculture in Yiryinia. 

" There needs no stronger illustration of 
the doctrine of depravity than the state of 
human nature on plantations in general. * 
* * Their a<lvauce in years is but a pro- 
gression to the higher grades of iniquity." — 
lion. C. C. I'inckney, Address before the South 
Carvlina Agricultural Society, at Charleston, 
1820, second edition, pages 11), 12. 

The Maryvillc (Tennessee) Intelligencer o? 
Oct. 4, 1835, says of the slaves of the South- 
west, that their " condition, through time, will 
be second only to that of the wretched crea- 
tures in hell." 



Plere, then, is a field for gi-eat missionary 
labor; and it is fortunate that, under these 
circumstances, we happen to have an institu- 
tion which is perfectly adapted to the regen- 
eration of a lost and ruined race. I quote 
from the honorable member fi-oni the State 
of Virginia, in a speech delivered here, some 
time ago, in the House of Representatives: 

" I believe that the institution of Slavery 

is a noble one; that it is necessary for the 

good, the well-being, of the negro race. 

Looking to history, 'l go further, .md I say, 

in the presence of this assembly, and under 

all the imposing circumstances surroundin"- 

me, that I believe it is God's institution. Yes^ 

sir, if there is any thing in the action of the 

great Author of us all ; if there is any thing 

in the conduct of His chosen people; if there 

is any thing in the conduct of Christ himself, 

I who came upon this earth, and yielded up 

\ His life as a sacrifice, that all through His 

i death might live ; if there is any thlngin the 

I conduct of His Apostles, who inculcated obe- 

, dience on the part of slaves towards their 

masters as a Christian duty, then v,e nuist 

, believe that the institution is from (rod." 

Hon. Wm. Smith, of Virginia, in a speech in 
the House of Representatives. 

Again, I quote from the speech of ihe hon- 
orable gentleman fi-om Geoi-gia [^.Ii-. Gart- 
rell], in regard to this same sentiment : 

" Every sentiment e.xpressed in that elo- 
quent extract meets my hearty approbation. 
As a Christian man, believing in the teach- 
ings of Holy Writ, I am here to-daj- before a 
Christian nation to re-affirm and re-announce 
the conclusion to which that distinguished 
gentleman came — that this institution, how- 
ever nmch it may have been reviled, is of 
God." 

INIr. Chairman, these are not tlie only au- 
thorities on this subject You and I have 
heard from the other side, day after day,j^|uo- 
tations from the Bible, intending to prove the 
same thing; and you and I know that there 
are honest men in the slave States who be- 
lieve that this is a fact I have seen such men 
myself, and have conversed with them. They 
have told me that Slavery was an absolute 
curse; and that the only reason why they 
held their slaves a day was, that thej- owed 
(hem certain religious duties, and must keep, 
them to look after their spiritual welfare. 
They feared that if their slaves were cast 
loose upon the world, with noLovly to look 



18 

after their spiritual interest?, they would be he is. This is about the extent we submit to 



spiritually lost. I heard this from a gentle- 
man li-om Kentucky, and again from a gentle- 
man from Augusta, Georgia, and I believe in 
my heart that both of these gentlemen were 
honest in these views. 

I am not here to impugn any man's motives. 
I put this upon the ground that is claimed by 
Southern men ; and when I listened to the 
gentlemen on the other side, reading honestly 
from the sacred volume in defence of this in- 
stitution, as coming from God, and as a means 
for the regeneration of a heathen race in our 
land, 1 felt impelled to use the language of 
the Apostle to the Gentiles, which he em- 
ployed on Mars Hill : " Oh ! Athenians, I 
j)erccive that in all things ye are exceedingly 
given to religion." [Laughter.] Now, sir, 
since this institution has done all it ever can 
in this capacity, and since it is now destroyed 
as a converting and regenerating power, I 
stand here to give it its proi)er place in eccle- 



self-sacrifice for the sake of the heathen. 

Is there any cause for exultation in this, 
when we see what our Southern brethren 
have done and are doing? When have we 
ever taken the heathen to our hearth-stones 
and to our bosoms ? "When have we ever 
admitted the heathen to social comnumion 
with ourselves and our children ? A\'iH'n 
have we ever taken the heathen to our large 
cities to show them the works of art, or to the 
watering places to show them fashionable 
society and beautiful scenery ? Did you ever 
see a Yankee at the "White Sulphur Springs 
shedding a benign religious influence over a 
little congregation of heathen companions? 
[Laughter.] We have pious women In the 
Northern States, whose bright example has 
made attractive the paths of virtue and re- 
ligion. Conspicuous among them, in every 
good work, are the wives of our ministers and 
deacons; but not one of these, within the 



slastlcal history, for its light place it has [range of my acquaintance, would consider 



never yet had. 



herself qualified, either by nature or by grace, 



In order to understand what position it is j to be chambermaid, dry-nurse, and spli'itual 
entitleii to, we must, to some extent, speak by | adviser, to ten or twenty heathens in her own 
comparison, because we cannot speak abso- j family. But, sir, had these worthy dames 
lutely on these matters of religion. The re- | been nolle dames ; had they come down to us 
ligious journals of the free States have ot^ten- from the blood of the Norman Kings, through 



times most unreasonably exulted over our 
religious etTorts, when they contrasted them 
with the efforts of our Southern brethren. I 



the bounding pulses of sundry cavaliers, and 
then had been willing to assume these humble 
offices of Christian charity, we should have 



have seen placed in parallel columns, in ! believed the time, so often prayed for, had 
Northern journals, the contributions of the | already come, when " kings should be fathers 
free States and the contributions of the slave i and queens nursing mothers in the church." 
States; and there were mighty words of ex- | Where, then, is the ground for this exultation 
nltatlon, unbecoming a Christian journal or | on the part of the North? I tell you that it 
Christian people at any time, when it was | cannot be prompted by any thing but a 
.'ihown that our contributions for foreign mis- \ rotund, bulbous, self-righteousness. So much, 
sions were a hundred-ibld more than } ours. 1 then, for the social sacrifices of our Southern 
It is true we make more contributions. The brethren. 

city of Boston gives, for foreign missions, per- What other sacrifices have they made to 
haps ir.oi-e than all the slave States; and the I regenerate this race ? Great moral and in- 
city of New York perhaps more than Boston, j tellectual sacrifices. I will read what South- 
But what of that? AVe give a few cents | ern men say on this subject : 



apiece, and only a few cents, for foreign mis- 
sions each year, which amounts to a great 



Judge Tucker, of Virginia, said in 1801 : 
I say nothing of the baneful effects of 



sum, because we are a great people. We | Slavery on our moral character, because 
send men to heathen nations far over the ! you know I have long been sensible of tliis 



water, to tell them about their future destiny. ! 
AVe are careful not to send our best men ; we 
keep our Notts and Waylands, and our Beech- 
ers and Cheevers, at home ; but sometimes a 
Judson escapes from us before we know what 



point." 

The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina 
and Georgia said, in their report of 1834 : 

" Those only who have the management 
of these servants know what the hardening 



19 

e(rert of it is upon thc-ii- own foollngs towards man who governs the OI.l Dominion, in a 

*■''"■ • speech a few rears ago, said : 

Judge Summers, of Virginia, said, in a| " But in all the four cardinal resources — 

speech m 1832, in ahnost the same words: ; womlerful to tell, disagreeable to tell,shame- 

"A slave population produces the most , ful to announce — but one source of all four 

penu.-.ous effect upon the manners, habits, : in time past, has been employed to produce 

and character, of tliose among whom it exists." . wealth. We have had no work in manufac- 

Judge ^lchols, of Kentucky, in a speech | turing, an<l commerce has spread its wings 

m 18.] (, said : , ^^d flown from us, and agriculture has onfy 

"ilie deliberate convictions of my most . skimmed the surface of mother earth Three 

matured consideration are, that the institution ' out of the four cardinal virtues have been 

of slavery is a most serious injury to the hab- ; idle ; our a oung men, over their ci-ars and 

Its, manne.-s, and morals, ofour white popula-; toddy, have been talking politics, "and the 

tion; that It leadsto sloth, indolence, dissipa-^ negroes have been left to themselves until 

tion, an<l vice." ^e have all grown jwor to-ether." 

So said Uv. Jefferson : But trials, a.ul tribulat^ions, and poverty, 

"Tlie man must be a prodigy who can have ever beset tlic pathway of the saints, 
retain his manners and morals uncontami- \ In the earliest days, tliey " wandered about 
nated " [in the midst of slavery]. ! i„ sheep-skins and'goat-skins, persecuted, af- 

John ilandolph on the floor of Congress, ' flicted, tormented." Even now, in the nine- 
^ ■ . j teenth century, the condition of our South- 

" A\ here are the trophies of this infernal ern brethren is not much improved, since 
trafTieV The handcufTs, the manacle, the they are compelled "to chase the stump- 
blood-stained cowhide ! What man is worse j tailed steer over sedge patches which out- 
rcceivetl in society for being a hard master? j shine the sun, to get a tough steak," and to 
Uho denies the hand of sister or daughter listento the perpetual cry of " debts ! debts ! " 



to sucli monsters ? " 

I might quote a hundred other Southern 



"taxes! taxes!" 

In this age of material progress, you have 



aulhonlies of tiie same kind, showing the seen the North outstrip you ;" but, with true 
baneful cfTiH-t of tliis institution upon the j Cliristian patience and 'Christian devotion, 
moral and intellectual character of the South, you have adhered to the great work of re-rcn- 
I might also quote from the United States j crating the heathen. [Laughter.] Thro'ugh 
census. I have the papers here, but time evil report and tlirough good'^rcport, reproa(^i- 
will not allow. ^ | ^,i ^,,,1 maligned abroad by those who did not 

>«()w, m addition to these moral and intel- j understand your motives, and, worst of all, 
lectual sacrifices which our Southern breth- 1 sometimes abused at home by the ungrateful 
rcn admit, there are pecuniary sacrifices | objects of your Christian charity, yo'^u have 
which^ you know to be very great; indeed, still pressed on towards the mark of your 
had Virginia been free fifty years airo, had 



she been exempt from this great tendency to 
christianize the African race, she would have 
been worth more this day than all the Atlan- 
tic States south of New Jersey. And should 
she by any chance become free, you will see 
lier wealth and her population increase in pro- 
liortlon as this missionary spirit is diminished. 

[Laughter.] It is true, our Southern breth- or for the good of other men, as I do 
rcn, impressed with this great idea of chris- the history of these slave States. I have 
tianizing the African race, having for their | seen Fox's Book of Martyrs, but there is 
only ambition to present the souls of their | nothing in that to compare at all with the 
negroes, without spot or blemish, before the j martyrs of the South. The census of the 
throne of the Eternal, have sacrificed almost United States is the greatest book of martyrs 
every thing. I could (piote from Southern ever printed. [Laughter.] Other books 
men upon this subject. The sagacious states- | treat of martyrs as individuals; the census 



high calling. Now, sir, when was tliere ever 
a class of men so devoted and so self-sacri- 
ficing? I have read the history of the Apos- 
tles; I have read the history of tlic Ri'formers, 
of the Scotch Covenanters, of the Huguenots, 
and of the Crusaders; and, I tell you, not in. 
one or all of these have I seen any such he- 
roic self-sacrifice for the good of anotlier race, 

see In 



20 



of the United States treats of them by coun- 
ties and by States. I can see how a man, 
impressed 'vvith a grand and noble sentiment, 
should perhaps, in excitement or in an emer- 
gency, give up his life in support of it; but 
cannot see how a man can sacrifice his friends, 
his fiimily, and his country, for a religious 
idea or an abstraction. 

Here, then, sir, is the position of our South- 
ern brethren upon this subject. But the 
worst is yet to be told — the doleful conclusion 
of the wliole mattei-. They have made sacri- 
fices, and it seems to me that they were en- 
titled to the rewards for them ; and I doubt 
not that they have often consoled themselves 
in contemplating the rewards in the future 
which must await them for such good services 
in the present. I have no doubt, sir, that 
oftentimes, seeing they have not treasures laid 
up on earth, they suppo.-^ed they had treasures 
laid up in heaven. [Laughter.] But just at 
that time, when they seemed to be almost in 
the fruition of their labors, when the gentle- 
man from Missouri [Mr. Anderson], in great 
exultation of spirit, was speaking of the insti- 
tution that had raised the negro from barbar- 
ism to Christianity and civilization, and when 
the gentleman from Indiana [I\Ir. Hughes] 
had caught the inspiration, and said, that al- 
though the body of the African might be toil- 
ing under the lash, " his soul was free, and 
could converse on the sublimest principles of 
science and philosophy" — when faith had al- 
most become sight — just then, sir, out comes 
the Supreme Court with the decision that 
A NEGRO HAS NO SOUL ! [Laughter.] 

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" 
All these treasures that were supposed to 
have been laid up " where neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal," have been invaded 
by the decision of the Supreme Coiu-t, and 
scattered to the four winds of heaven. INIore 
than two centuries of prayers and tears, of 
lieroic self-sacrifice and Christian devotion, 
of foith and hope, of temporal and spiritual 
agony, have come to this " lame and impo- 
tent conclusion." [Laughter.] The moral 
dignity of the grandest missionary enterprise 
of this age is annihilated. 

As a Northern man, I stand here a disin- 
terested spectator of these events. If I do 
not like the decision of the court, I have a 
higher law. The negro himself can appeal 
to the court of heaven ; but what refuse has 



the Southern church ? [Renewed laughter.] 
None whatever. This decision is a blow, 
direct and terrible, falling with crushing vio- 
lence upon our Southern brethren. This 
Supreme Court, with cruel and relentless 
hostility, has persecuted the Southern church 
as the dragon of the Apocalypse pursued the 
woman into the wilderness, seeking to devour 
her oiTspring. [Much laughter.] 

What motives could have impelled the 
court to this act ? I have no doubt a patri- 
otic motive. I am not liere to impugn the 
motives of any man, or of any set of men, 
much less of the highest judicial tribunal in 
this land. No doubt, sir, their motives were 
patriotic, for they had witnessed the devasta- 
tion of this terrible religious fanaticism through 
the South. They had seen the ravages of 
this disastrous missionary monomania, and 
they determined that there must be an end 
of it ; and how could they so effectually end 
it as by annihilating at once the object of its 
aims and aspirations. That, sir, they have 
done. 

Here, then, endeth the moral power of the 
institution of Slavery. 

I come now to the consideration of the 
event which just as surely has doomed to de- 
struction the political power of that institution 
— Imean the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise measure in the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill. That act, sir, I will show to 
you — if it ever was committed by the slave 
power — to have been a suicidal act. What 
need was there for repealing that Compro- 
mise, or of admitting Slavery into Kansas b>j 
law ? Was not the South sure enough of the 
Territory as it was before? I think — and 
this is my honest conviction — that had it not 
been for that act, Kansas would have been 
inevitably a slave State. We of the North 
had no particular interest in that Territory. 
It was put down in our geographies as the 
great American desert. We had not consid- 
ered it of much importance; but we relied on 
the law to keep Slavery out of it, and to pre- 
serve it to Freedom. W^e of the North have 
had too high an idea of the power of the 
General Government and of law, cither for 
Freedom or agaim^t Freedom. Sir, this Gen- 
eral Government has but little power over 
this question. It is not a motive power. It is 
only a regiMrij, an exponent of power. It is 
the log-book of the ship of State, and not the 
steam engine that propels - the ship, or the 



21 



wind that fills the canvas. We -would like to , 
have the log-book kept right, to show us our ; 
true position ; but we do not now consider j 
the Govornmcnt as the motive power. The ; 
motive power of this nation, as of all nations, I 
is the people in their homes ; and as the peo- i 
l)le in their homes are, so is your character '. 
and so is your progress. If the people in I 
their homes in Kansas had been Pro-Slavery, ; 
what could the North have opposed to it V It 
was emigration, and emigration only, that ; 
could have made Kansas a Stale, either slave I 
or free. The great law that governs cmigra- , 
tiou is this ; that emigration follows the paral- ! 
Icls of latitude westward. Under that law, \ 
Kansas would have been settled entirely by a j 
I'ro-Slavery people, as was the southern part 
of Indiana, and as was tiie southern part of 
Illinois. AVe in the North, trusting in the 
protection of the law, would have had no j 
remedy. People in favor of Slavery would 
have gone there, and if they were compelled 
at first to adopt a free Constitution in order 
to shape their institutions according to any 
law concerning the Territory, they might have 
soon ri'versed that position. In fact, the de- 
cision of the Supreme Court has now made 
any sueh thing unnecessary. They might 
have Ibrmed just such a Constitution as they 
pleased. Well, then, we would thus, in all 
probability have had Kansas a slave State 
without tlie Kansas-Nebraska bill. But the 
jiassage of that bill, if Slavery had been 
certain before, accmed to the majority of the 
people in the North to make it almost inevit- 
able. History warranted this fear. Judging 
from the case of Iiuliana, there seemed to be 
no chance whatever for Freedom in Kansas, 
after the opportunity for Slavery to enter 
there had been given. There was Missouri 
on the confines of the Territory — and the 
most densely peojtled portion of ilissouri, too. 
Freedum-loving men, desiring to go to that 
Territory, would have ha<l to travel hundreds 
and thousands of miles. The men who lived 
on the line of Kansas, as well as other South- 
ern men who entertained the same idea — 
though they did not express it then, for fear 
of losing the bill — anticipated that the pas- 
sage of the bill would settle the question lor 
Slaver)- In Kansas forever. That was the 
evidence of the early history of Indiana. 
AVhen that Territory was opened for settle- 
ment, a few slaveholders, perhaps a dozen or 
a score, went over from Kentueky, and, con- 



trary to tnc wishes both of the President and 
Congress, contrary to the ordinance of 1787, 
established Slavery; and they obtained such 
control over that young Territor)-, that peti- 
tions, signed by many of the inhabitants, pray- 
ing Congress to suspend the prohibition of 
Slavery, were presented to Congress, year 
after year, from 1803 to 1807. These 'few 
slaveholders of the Territory of Indiana ac- 
quired such control over the inhabitants of 
that Territory, because they were an organ- 
ization, as Slavery is everywhere and at all 
times an organization. It was a concentra- 
tion of capital, a coneentratlon of inlluence, 
and a concentration of power, which our emi- 
grants from the free States, coming one by 
one, were unable to resist; and had it not 
been for the overwhelming population Avhieh 
poured in from the North in 1807 and 1808, 
the prohibition of Slavery would have been 
suspended. Had It not been for John Ran- 
dolph, it would have been suspended in 1803 ; 
and had it not been for Mr. Franklin in tiie 
Senate, itmight have been suspended in 1807 ; 
and both of these were Southern men. 

Well, sir, I have said that slaveholders arc 
everywhere an organization. Tlare is a 
conununity of Interest, a bond of feeling and 
of sympathy, whieh combines and concen- 
trates all efibrts to defend Slavery where it is, 
and to extend it to j)laces where it is not. I 
will (juote fron> the hist number of De Buics 
Jieciew, evei-y where acknowledged to be good 
Southern autiiority. In an article defending 
the New England Emigrant Aid Company, 
the writer says : 

" We of the South have been practising 
' Organized Emigration ' for a century, and 
hence have outstripped the North in the ac- 
quisition of land. The owner of a hundred 
slaves, who, with his overseer, moves to the 
West, carries out a self-supporting, self-insur- 
ing, well-organized community. This is the 
sort of ' Organized Emigration' which expe- 
rience shows suits the South and the negro 
race, whilst Mr. Thayer's is euually well 
adapted to the whites." 

Then, what fault can be found with our ef- 
forts to organize Freedom by means of our 
emigrant aid societies, that enable our citi- 
zens to go to the Territories in companies of 
twenty, fifty, one hundred, or two hundred, to 
take possession of the West, and to locate 
there the institutions under which they choose 
to live ? 



22 



And here I come to the defence of tliis ns- 
sociation. It lias been assailed, time and 
again, on this floor, and I have never been 
allowed even the privilege of putting ques- 
tions to its assailants. The gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Anderson) called it " illegal 
and unconstitutional." It has been so as- 
sailed by the successor of Millard Fillmore. 
But where is the proof V "Which of its acts has 
been shown to be illegal or unconstitutional ? 
If it was illegal and unconstitutional, why 
lias not the organization been crushed by the 
courts V "We contend that any organization 
which is allowed to continue its existence 
from year to year, and to carry on its busi- 
ness, has the presumption, at least, of a legal 
riglit to do so. We claim that for the Em- 
igrant Aid Company. 

But the gentleman from Missouri professes 
to have authority in regard to this matter. 
He has said that we may employ this emi- 
gi-ant aid society in ])romoting emigration to 
Central America and to foreign countries, 
but that we must " heicare " how we do so in 
colonizing the Territories of this Govern- 
ment. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman from 
Missouri has any authority in these premises, 
I hope he will exercise it. I ask him to jiub- 
lish a hand-book for emigrants, telling us how 
we may go into a Territory ; whether we 
7nay ride or must go on foot ; whether we may 
take our wives and children with us, or must 
leave them at home ; whether we may take 
some of our neighbors with us, with their a<^- 
ricultural implements and steam engines, or 
whether we must go into the Territories with- 
out any neighbors whatever; whether we 
may get horses or oxen from the free States, 
or whether we must content ourselves to take 
mules from the State of Missouri. '"Laugh- 
ter.] 

Now, sir, let us have not only the book, 
but the reasons for it. Let us know how far 
we may go, according to the law, in this mat- 
ter of emigration. I recommend the gentle- 
man from Missouri to take some lessons from 
the gentleman from ]\Iississij)pi, (Mr. Quit- 
man), on the rights of emigration. I think 
he can get broader views upon this subject, 
if he will consult that gentleman, and I think 
he will allow northern men to go to the places 
which they have a right to go to by the law of 
this land, in such society, if it be laAv-abiding, 
as they may choose to select for themselves. 

I have said that the great general law of 



emigration is, that the emigrants shall follow 
the parallels of latitude in this country. 
There are some exceptions to this. The gold 
in California led our emigrants from the ex- 
treme North across many parallels of latitude. 
That Avas a sufhcient disturbing cause. The 
existence of Slavery in the slave States of 
this country has driven thirty-five out of 
every hundred emigrants across northern 
parallels to the free States of the Union. 
That was another great and powerful cause. 
But there is another cause sufficient to carry 
emigration southward over parallels of lati- 
tude. That is, the argument of cheap lands, 
with the additional advantage of organized 
emigration. The objections that have here- 
tofore existed among Northern men to set- 
tling in Southern States are, by this mode of 
emigrating, entirely obviated. The North- 
ern man, with his family of children, would 
not heretofore go into a Southern State, in 
the absence of schools and churches. But 
when combined Avith one or two hundred, or 
one or two thousand, of his friends and neigh- 
bors, he goes into a slave State, he carries 
with him schools and churches, and the me- 
chanic arts, all these difliculties are obviated ; 
and, besides, he has the inducement of going 
where the land can be bought at slave State 
prices, in the expectation of finding it come 
up probably in a few years to free-State 
prices, which are five or six times greater 
than slave-State prices. Here is the great 
inducement of increasing wealth. Let a col- 
ony start from Massachusetts, and settle on 
almost any land in tlie State of Virginia— in 
Greenville, Southampton, Dinwiddle, or Ac- 
comac, where the lands do not average so 
high as three dollars an acre, by the census 
of 1850 — and the very day they settle 
there, the value of the land is more than 
doubled. There is better land for sale to- 
day in Tennessee and North Carolina, for 
fifty cents per acre, than can be bought for 
ten times that sum in any free State. 

How can such an appeal to the imigrating 
population of the North, in favor of organ- 
ized emigration to the slave States, be re- 
sisted ? I know of no means of resisting it. 
Certainly you can have no reason for resist- 
ing it, but every reason to encourage it. "We 
do not come as your enemies ; we come as 
your friends. "We do not come to violate 
your laws, but to imj)rove our own condition. 
This movement southward is destined to eou- 



23 

tiniic and to increase. Sir. if Slavery were Union — in fact, if there is any weak spotin 
as sacred as the Ark of the Covenant, and the Union, I think it would be a good tliin"- 
if it were defended by angels, I doubt [ to patch it over with an additional layer of 
whether it could withstand the progress of : population. [Applause.] There never would 
tliis age and the money-making tendencies i be any disunion, if we could only attend to 
of the Yankee. But it is not as sacred as , it, and see where the weak places are. and 
the Ark of the Covenant, and nobody be- \ mend them in time. 

lieves that it is defended by angels. ! But there is another exception to the rule 

But, sir, there begins to be an enligntened j I have laid down. Central America will 
idea in these border slave States upon this i prove abundantly sufficient to carry cmi^ra- 
subject. A year ago, when I proposed to ■ tion southward, even across many parallels 
jilant a few colonies in Virginia, several jour- : of latitude. She offers the grand induLC- 
nals in the Old Dominion threatened me j ments of commerce, of a climate unsurpass- 
with hemp and grape-vine if I should ever i ed in salubrity (in the central and Pacific 
set fo<jt in that Territory. Well, I thought I ! portions) of a fertile soil, wliich yields three 
would make the experiment. I went into 
western Virginia and into eastern Kentucky. 
I addressed numerous audiences in both of 



crops a year, and, more than all, Luids so 
cheap that every man may buy. AVe have 
already begun to move, and what to some 
tliosc States, and everywhere where I asked I men seemed to be the unbilical cord of an 
the people if they had any objection to their embryo Southern Empire, is likely, bv these 
land being worth four or five times what it | means, to be cut off, if it is not cut otT al- 
was, they said " No." [Laugliter.] I asked j ready. [Laughter.] Everybody knows the 
them if they had any objection to the man- i physiological consequences, 
ufacture of ploughs and wagons in "Wayne i "Well, sir, I wish now to say that there is a 
county. There never had been a manufac- I higher power than man's in relation to this 
turin:^ establishment between the Big Sandy ' matter of Freedom in Kansas. It seemed at 
aiul (iuyandot. Though no portion of this first to the whole North that the project of 
continent is better situated for manufacturing j establishing Slavery thei-e would exclude 
purjiosi's, having more than thirty thousand I Freedom, and the whole North was intimi- 
miles of river communication, whleh affords | dated by it. There was the greatest reluc- 
cheap transportation to the best markets, with tance manifested to emigration in that direc- 
ahealthy climate and inexliaustible supplies of | tion from the North. Evei-ywhcrc there was 
coal and iron and timber of the best (juality. i fear; everywhere despair. 
Yet every manufactured article was import- 



ed into this Natural Paradise of mechanics, 
There was not a newspaper published be- 
tween the two rivers. I asked if they had 
any objection to a good, substantial, business 
newspaper published there, and to have 
schools and churches and the meclianic arts 
established in that county. With one voice 
they replied," None, whatever." "We avcI- 
come you to our county, and to all its ad- 
vantages." This was a generous and manly 
recei)tion, worthy of the history of the Old i reached that Territory, and had founded the 
Dominion. At every meeting we were wel- famous city of Lawrence, the whole train of 



Thpre was silonce deep as deafn, 
While we flicued on onr paih ; 

And the boldest held his breuiii 
For a time." 

Six months of persistent effort in writing 
and speaking were required to induce the 
first colony of only thirty men to go to Kansas. 
The people had become impressed with the 
idea that Kansas was destined to be a slave 
State ; but as soon as the first colony had 



coined by the unanimous voice of the people ; 
and now I believe that there are at least 



Northern emigration was turned from Ne- 
braska and from Minnesota to Kansas. And 



twelve newspapers in the State of Virginia | they have filled Kansas with Free State men 
advocating these colonics coming into the | — such men as are fitted for the high posi- 
Statc. The sagacious statesman who is the I tion they occupy ; for Kansas is the geograph- 
Governor of the Old Dominion gives us a j ical centre of our possessions. Its position 
general and most cordial welcome. Well, | in itself makes it the arbiter of our fate in all 
the prospect is very good and inviting ; and j coming time, destined to give law to all be- 
if there is any danger of a dissolution ofthcjtween the Missouri river and the golden 



24 



gates of tlie Pacific, and to make its power 
felt all the way between the British posses- 
sions and the (lulf of Mexico. Never were 
more nolile men needed for a more noble 
woi-k. It was necessary that Plyniontli Rock 
tiliould repeat itself in Kansas. The Puritan 
cliaracter was needed there ; but how could 
it be had, except by such discipline as made 
the Puritans ; for if it was necessary that they 
should be elevated like the Pilgrim Fathers of 
New P^ngland, it was also necessary that they 
should have the training of the Pilgrim Fath- 
ers. They were jieculiar in their early history, 
and peculiar in their late history. They had 
their early education among the rocks and 
mountains of New England. I have known 
of great men in times past, who came from 
the forest, who came from hills and moun- 
tains ; but I never have known them to be 
raised on Wilton carpets. These men re- 
ceived their eai'ly training among the rugged 
hills of New England, where they waged in- 
cessant war on ice and granite, on snow and 
gravelstones. It is there where they ac([uire 
their energy and their power. And, sir, I 
think the Yankee race has at least an octave 
more compass than any other nation on 
earth. I liunr a Yankee doughface is half 
an octave meaner that any other man. 
[Laughter.] { 

Sir, some of the best of this Yankee race | 
went to Kansas. They were stigmatized, | 
six months before they arrived there, as | 
thieves and paupers. "Well, if such men as j 
those who have built Lawrence, and Tope- 1 
ka, and INIanhatten, and Ossawatomie, and ' 
Quindaro, Avere thieves and paupers, what do ; 
you think we respectable, well-to-do people, 
will accomplish in the Old Dominion, where 
we are now becoming accjuainted with some 
of the " first families ? " These Free State 
men of Kansas have been reviled by their in- 
feriors at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue 
many times during the last three years. The 
other day, in the other end of this Capitol, 
such men were denominated slaves. Sir, we 
are slaves! I admit it; hut our only master 
is the Great Jeliovah. These heroes in Kan- 
sas having for their ancestors the Pilgrim 
Fathers, •' sons of sires who baffled crowned 
and mitred tyranny," disciplined in their 
early years by the rugged teachings of adver- 
sity, seem to have been well prepared for 
their high mission. 

But the discipline of Avorthy example, of 



New England education, and of poverty and 
adversity were not enough. The discipline 
of tyranny was requisite for their perfection. 
This discipline has been of use in all ages ot' 
the woi-ld. David was not fit to rule over 
Israel until he had been hunted like a " par- 
tridge in the mountains " by the envious and 
malignant Saul. Brutus was not fitted to 
expel the Tarquins until he had endured 
their tyranny for jears. "What would Mo- 
ses have done, but for Pharaoh ? Where 
would have been the Reformers of the six- 
teenth century, where the Puritans in the 
seventeenth, and the Patriots in the eigh- 
teenth, but for Leo the Tenth, Charles the 
First, and George the Third ? But Charles 
the First lost his head, and George the Third 
his colonies, for less tyranny than has been 
practised upon the people of Kansas by the 
two successors of Millard Fillmore. If we 
thank God for patriots, we should also thank 
II im for t}rants ; for what great achievements 
have patriots ever made, without the stimu- 
lus of tyranny ? "Without vice, virtue it- 
self must be insipid ; and without wicked and 
mean men, there could be no heroes. 

The brave man rejoices in the opposition 
of the enemy of his rights. Wicked and 
mean men are the stepping-stones on Avhich 
the good and great ascend to heaven and 
immortal fame. 

These miscreants, cursed both by God and 
man, subserve important interests. The sa- 
cred volume which unfolds to us the life and 
sufferings of the Saviour of men, makes re- 
cord also of Pontius Pilate and of Judas Is- 
cariot as necessary agencies in that great re- 
demption. 

So I Avill denounce no man who has fought 
against Freedom in Kansas, as entirely use- 
less in the grand result. But what a team to 
draw the chariots of freedom ! Atchison and 
Stringfellow and John Calhoun, with the 
two successors of Millard Fillmore to lift at 
the wheels. 



In the autumn of 1858, Mr. Thayer was a 
second time nominated for Congress. He 
appeared before the convention that nomin- 
ated him, and addressed them on his position 
and views. The result was, that he was en- 
dorsed with great enthusiasm, both by the 
convention and his constituents. He was 
returned to Congress by an overwhelmin"' 
majority, the best proof of the esteem in 



25 



j^r7 



wlikli Ills services and character ■were held 
at home. 

He delivered a tliird speech in Congress, 
on the lull of February, 18.J9,on the admis- 
sion of Oregon ; a speech that made a great 
deal of talk in the Republican partv, espe- 
cially as, by the aid of a few Republicans, 
Oregon was finally admitted as a State. 
AVith the promulgation of this liberal and 
statesmanlike speech, which was character- 
ized by all of its author's usual energy, clear- 
ness, and practical force, was opened upon 
liim an opposition by a portion of the press 
of his own party, that has not ceased till the 
j)resent time. It is against these very as- 
saults that he is defending himself to-day. 
Oregon was admitted by the votes of eleven 
Republicans in the House of Representatives, 
Eli Thayer leading the column. 

The speech is as follows : — 

IVIii. Spkakku : My colleague []Mr. Dawes] 
who has just addressed the House is unable 
to see how an honest Representative of the 
State of ^Massachusetts can vote for the ad- 
mission of Oregon. "Well, in the exercise of 
charity, I can sc^e how a Massachusetts Rep- 
resentative, both honest and patriotic, can 
vote atjainst the admission of Oregon. He 
can do it by not comprehending the question, 
or he may do it in obedience to party dicta- 
tion. I will now show my colleague how an 
honest Representative can vote for the ad- 
mission, if he will listen to my argument and 
tlie reasons which I shall give in defence of 
my position. 

^Ir. Speaker, I think this is a strange ne- 
cessity that compels the Northern Represen- 
tatives upon this lloor to give the reasons for 
their votes for the admission of another free 
State into (his Confederacy. Sir, I shall vote 
for the admission of the State of Oregon 
without hesitation, without reluctance, and 
without reserve. So far as my vote and my 
voice can go, I would extend to her such a 
Avelcomc as becomes her history, as becomes 
her promise for the future, and such as be- 
comes our own high renown for justice and 
magnanimity — a welcome not based on con- 
temj)tible j)olitical calculation, or still more 
contemptible partisan expediency ; but such 
a welcome as sympathy and friendship and 
patriotism should extend to another new 
State; such, sir, as becomes the birthday of a 
nation. 



This people comes before us in accordance 
with the forms of law, and upon the invita- 
tion of this House ; and it is too late to apply 
a party test upon this question. On the 19th 
of May last, a vote was taken in the Senate 
upon the admission of Oregon, and eleven 
Republican Senators voted for her admission, 
while six Republican Senators only votecl 
against her admission ; and, sir, I have not 
heard of any attempt, on the part of the six 
Senators who voted for the rejection of Ore- 
gon, to read out of the Republican party the 
eleven Senators who voted for her admission ; 
and if that attempt is now to be made, we 
will see whether it is in the power of a mi- 
nority of the people to read a majority out of 
the party. 

But, sir, who arc these people of Oregon, 
who come here now, asking admission ? They 
are the pilgrims of the Pacific coast. If they 
arc fiinatlcs upon some subjects, we can refer 
to the pilgrims of the Atlantic coast, who also 
were fanatics upon some subjects. But, sir, 
if the pilgrims of the Atlantic coast finally 
became examples to (he world in all that ex- 
alts our race, may we not hope that the pil- 
grims of the Pacific coast may yet become 
worthy of our esteem ? 

Nearly one-quarter of a centui-y ago, in 
my boyhood, I studied the adventures of those 
men, who founded upon the western shore of 
the American continent what are now the 
cities of Oregon and Astoria. These men, 
who were then in the vigor of their lives, are 
now old men — gray-haired and trembling 
with age. Their work of life is nearly com- 
pleted ; and this day they are sitting by their 
hearthstones, waiting to know what is to be 
the result of our deliberation ; waiting to 
know whether the proud consununatlon to 
which they have aspired for the last twenty 
years is now reached ; and whether Oregon, 
which, in toil and trial, In defiance of danger 
and of death, and with persistence and en- 
durance such as belong only to our race, they 
have brought to her ])i'esent proud and pros- 
perous condition, is now to be placed upon 
an equality with the original States of this 
Confederacy. 

These are the men who have carriea our 
institutions to (he remotest boundaries of our 
Republic. These are the veterans of the art 
of peace. American valor with concjuering 
arms has carried our (lag by Monterey and 



26 



Chcpultopcc until it was planted upon the 
halls of the Montezumas. But far beyond 
those halls have these heroes borne the vic- 
torious arts of peace. In the Territory of 
Oregon they have established our free insti- 
tutions. There, sir, strong and deep, they 
have laid the foundations of a free State, and 
they come here, like the wise men of the 
East, not asldnr/ gifts, but bringing gifts ; in 
that respect unlike our military men, who ex- 
pect and receive honors and rcAvards for their 
services. AVhat do they bring ? AVhy, sir, 
the trophies of their own labor, the evidences 
of their own worth. They present before us 
the cities and towns which they have founded. 
They present schools, churches, and work- 
shops. They bring all, all the products of 
their labor, and place them upon the altar of 
the Union, a pledge for the common welfare 
and the common defence. And what are we 
doing here '? Why, sir, quibbling about things 
which are comparatively unessential, and 
which pertain exclusively to the peojjle of 
Oregon, and not to us or our duties here ; 
quibbling about points which, if New York 
or i\Iassachusetts were in the place of Ore- 
gon, would secure some votes on this side of 
the House against their admission. IMassa- 
chusetts, which you know, sir, I never defend 
anywhere, even Massachusetts does not allow 
the negro to be enrolled in the militia of the 
State. These, then, are the men who come 
here ; and what if they have some ideas and 
sentiments with which we do not agree — is 
that a reason why we should excommunicate 
them ; that we should have nothing hereafter 
to do with them ? 

What law of reformation is this? It is the 
pliarisaical law of distance, distrust, and de- 
rision. It is not the Christian law of contact, 
confi<lence, and communion. The Pharisees 
denounced the Founder of Christianity as 
"the friend of publicans and sinners." That 
class would repel all who do not agree with 
them to the fullest extent. Shall we pursue 
a similar course in relation to the people 
of Oregon V Is it wise to do so ? Is it ex- 
pedient to re'ect their aonlication on such 
grounds ? 

^Vhat objections do Republicans present to 
this application ? They say there is not suf- 
ficient population, and they claim that it is 
tlieir mission to see that the Democratic party 
shall recover its consistency. At whose ex- 
l)ense ? At the expense of the consistency 



of the Rej^ublican party. I submit that it is 
better for the Republican party to preserve 
for Itself the consistency which it possesses, 
rather than attempt to recover for the Dem- 
ocrats the consistency which they have lost. 

Then, sir, in relation to this rpialification of 
population, what is the position of the Re- 
publican party, and what has it been ? Tliis 
party by its Representatives, voted for the 
admission of Kansas under the Topeka Con- 
stitution, with less than one-half of the pres- 
ent population of Oregon. The Republican 
party in the House, without one exception, 
so far as I know, voted lor the enabling act, 
inviting Oregon to come here, with a Consti- 
tution, to be admitted as a State. I have no 
disposition, and there is no need, to inquire 
here what is the population of Oregon ; for, 
as a Republican, I am pledged to no rule on 
this subject. I opposed, as did my colleague, 
and my friends on this side of the House, the 
restriction which was put upon tlie Territory 
of Kansas. We protested against it then, 
and protest against it now. We have no 
sympathy whatever with that restriction, and 
are ready, at any time, to give an honest vote 
for its repeal. 

Another objection is urged against the 
clause in the Constitution of Oregon which 
excludes negroes and mulattoes from that 
Territory ; and, in addition, provides that 
they shall not bring any suit therein. It is 
said that this is in contravention of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. This I do not 
admit. But what if it is ? The Constitution 
presented by the people of Oregon is not 
submitted to our vote. We cannot amend 
it ; all Ave have to do about it is to see that it 
is republican in form. If it is unconstitution- 
al, it is not in the power of Congress to im- 
part to it the least vitality, and it will fall by 
its own weight. But gentlemen argue here, 
as if we could by our votes give life and pow- 
er to an instrument in violation of the Consti- 
tution of the United States. Sir, this argu- 
ment is weak and futile. Congress itself de- 
rives its own vitality from the Constitution, 
and how can it impart a greater vital force 
than it has received ? The stream cannot 
rise above its source. 

But should the Constitution of Oregon be 
proved unconstitutional before the proj)er 
tribunal, then, sir, will it follow that we have 
violated our oaths, by admitting Oregon into 
the Union with that organic law '? By no 



27 



-^^-T 



means. AVe have not sworn that the peo- 
ple of Oregon shall support the Constitution 
of the United States. We have sworn to 
support it ourselves, not that anybody else 
shall do so. 

But, sir, this provision is no more hostile to 
the Unitc<I States Constitution than are the 
laws of Indiana and Illinois which exclude ] 
free negroes and mulattoes from their boun- i 
daries. Certainly not. It is no more to ex- 
clude the suit of the man than to exclude ' 
the man himself. Is the negro less than liis j 
suit V I contend that he is greater than liis 
suit. The greater contains the less, and tlie 
statutes of Illinois and Indiana are as uncon- 
stitutional as is the provision of the Oregon 
Constitution. But it does seem, at the first 
view, that it was a wanton and unprovoked 
outrage upon the rights of these men who are 
excluded from that State. I think there is a 
real apology for the action of the States of Illi- 
nois and Indiana. Tliey are in close proximity 
to the institution of Slavery. They are un- 
der the shadow of the dying tree of Slavery, 
and its decay(;d limbs arc constantly threat- 
ening to fall upon their heads ; and I cannot 
censure them for taking such means as they 
see fit to protect themselves from such immi- 
nent peril. I am not disposed to call into 
question the right or constitutionality of their 
action. 

Is there no apologij, then, for the people of 
Oregon V Have they committed a wanton 
and unj)rovoki'd outrage upon tiie rights of ne- 
groes and mulattoes, in excluding them from 
that Territory? I say that there is an apol- 
ogy, and that it consists in this : they believed 
that they were obliged to choose between a 
free-State Constitution with this provision, 
and a slave-State Constitution without it. 
There were three parties in the Territory 
at the time this Constitution was made and 
adopted. There was the Free-State party, 
which was composed of Free-State Demo- 
crats and Rejjublicans. There was the Pro- 
Slavery party, in favor of a slave State. There 
was, between these two, a very considerable 
party, supposed to hold the balance of pow- 
er, and that party I may characterize as the 
anti-negro party. They said that they would 
sooner vote for a slave State that for a free 
State with a Constitution admitting free ne- 
groes and mulattoes. They preferred to 
have slaves in Oregon rather than free ne- 
groes; and it was for the purpose of securing 



their vote for a free State that the Bopubli- 
cans and Free-State Democrats inserted and 
advocated this provision. The leading Ilepub- 
licans of that Teri-itory advocated the adoj> 
tion of the Constitution containing this pro- 
vision. Mr. Logan, who received every Re- 
publican vote for United States Senator, 
advocated, on the stump, the adoption of the 
Constitution with this clause. 

"What was the vote ? Why, sir, this clause 
of the Constitution had a majority of seven 
thousand five hundred and fifty-nine votes; 
while the Constitution itself had a majority of 
only four thousand votes. The Democratic 
majority in the Territory, as shown in the 
election of a Representative to this House, 
was only one thousand six hundred and thir- 
teen votes. Then it Is proved, by the official 
record, that tlie Republican party combined 
with the Free State Democratic party to sanc- 
tion and ratify this provision of the Constitution 
which is here called In question. There is 
also abundant evidence, outside of the record, 
to satisfy any one that such is the fact. This, 
then. Is the apology for the action of the peo- 
ple of Oregon on this question. What Re- 
publican, or what friend of free States, is 
justified, under these circumstances, in voting 
to exclude the people of Oregon from this 
Confederacy on account of this provision, 
which is only an expedient, and not a thing 
for practical use ? It is very easy, at this 
distance, to censure the people of Oregon, 
and to [)ronounce judgment against them ; but 
such judgment may be neither wise nor just. 

" Then at tlie balance let's be mute. 
Wo. never can adjust it ; 
Wliat's (lone we partly may compute, 
But know nut what's resisted." 

But, sir, there Is another objection urged 
from certain quarters, with great pertinacity. 
I mean the oljection to the sufi"rage of aliens. 
The Constitution of Oregon, in respect to 
alien suffrage, is certainly more stringent than 
the law of some of the States of the Union, 
and less stringent than that of others. It Is 
the same as the Territorial law has been 
during the last ten years. It requires a 
residence of twelve months In the United 
States, and of six months In Oregon. It re- 
quires that the sworn declaration of an Inten- 
tion to become a citizen of the United States 
shall have been on file at least one year. 
What was the inducement for that encourage- 
ment of ahens? The wages of labor are now, 



28 



and liave boon, in Oregon, douLlc Avliat they 
are on the Atlantic coast; and I ask, would 
it be exj)edient or wise for Oregon to drive 
awa}' from her borders the emigration from 
Europe, on which she has to rely for develop- 
ing the resources of the country ? Certainly 
not. Such a policy would have been disas- 
trous in the extreme to the young State. It 
was wise and prudent, therefore, for Oregon 
to invite and encourage that emigration which 
she so much needs, to develop her great re- 
sources, and to secure for her the products of 
her natural Avealth. 

These, sir, are among the plausible and 
ostensible objections that have been urged on 
this side of the House against the admission 
of Oregon. There is yet another argument: 
that Kansas has been excluded from the 
Union by the a,ction of the Democratic party ; 
and that, therefore. Republicans ought to ex- 
clude Oregon. The argument amounts to 
this: that we should abuse Oregon because 
the Democratic party have abused Kansas- 
Now I, for one, am quite content that the 
record of the Kepublicans, in respect to Ore- 
gon, should be better than the record of the 
Democratic party in respect to Kansas. I 
am quite content that the record of the Dem- 
ocratic party, in respect to Kansas, should be 
just what it is; and I do not think it is 
possible very much to improve the Repub- 
lican record, or to impair the Democratic 
record. Are we to sacrifice our own politi- 
cal principles and advantages, for the sake of 
compelling the Democratic party to consis- 
tency of action V Are we bound, as a party, 
to sacrifice our own consistency in doing so? 
Certainly not. I think the Republican party 
has another, and, to my mind, a less diihcult 
mission to perform ; and that is, to preserve 
its own consistency. 

These are some of the palpable objections 
that have been urged on this tloor. I come 
now to some for which I thank the gentleman 
from Indiana [Mr. Hughes]. He lias pre- 
sented to the House some secret objections 
which the Republicans are said to have to 
the admission of Oregon. The first is, that 
the Republicans are opposed to the admis- 
sion of Oregon, because it is a Democratic 
State. Now, sir, does not the gentleman 
from Indiana understand that the Republi- 
can party is not so devoid of sagacity as to 
fail to see that to reject a young State for 
the reason that it is Democratic would make 



it Democratic forever? Does the gentleman 
from Indiana find any thing in the history 
of the Republican party which justifies such 
conviction of its stupidity, as would lead him 
to say that the Republican party, as a party, 
is opposed to the admission of a free State be- 
cause her people had chosen such politics as 
seem to them best? Does he not^see that 
sagacious Republicans, finding that the Re- 
publican party in Oi-egon is now in a minor- 
ity of only a few hundred votes, understand 
that if Oregon be admitted by their action, 
and were thus set free from the influence of 
Executive patronage, she would very soon 
become a Republican State ? 

But further than that: the sentleman 
brings up another secret reason why the Re- 
publicans would oppose the admission of Or- 
egon. That secret reason is, that, in case of 
the failure of the people to elect a President, 
and in case of that election coming to this 
House, there will be a vote from Oregon 
against the Republican candidate, which 
may procure his defeat. Now, does not the 
gentleman from Indiana understand that any 
such position of the Republican party would 
secure its defeat ? that if it were stupid" enough 
to take a position against the admission of 
free States, because their Constitutions were 
not universally approved, it would require 
more than the vote of one State, either in 
Congress or out of Congress, to help or harm 
the prospects of the party ? I thank the gen- 
tleman from Indiana for the secret reasons 
which he has given, which I have thus far 
been enabled to prove too absurd and impol- 
itic to influence the action of the Republican 
party. 

There are certain principles which, in my 
opinion, should govern the House on a question 
of the admission of a State. Eirst, tlie Con- 
stitution must be republican in form. Second, 
there must be sufilcient pojnilation ; what 
number may be sufficient, must be left to the 
discretion of Congres. Third, the ])roposed 
admission nuist be shown to be for the bene- 
fit of the contracting parties ; to be best for 
the State applying, to be best for the Con- 
federacy. Let us look at these principles, 
and see how they should affect the vote on 
the admission of Oregon. Eirst, then, is the 
Constitution presented by Oregon republican 
in form ? 

I will here send to the Clerk's desk a 
quotation from an authority which is justly 



29 



^/y 



and generally respected by Republicans — j Maine (Mr. "Washburn) the other day deemed 
an extract from a speech of Senator Seward, , it expedient to call the pioneers of our na- 
made in the Senate of the United States j tional progress, "interlopers, ]-unaways, and 



last ^lay, upon this very question 
Tin:- Clerk read as follows 



outlaws." I affirm, concerning American citi- 
I zens in any Territory of the United States, 



"I think there is nobody who doubts that ' and in any new State of this Confederacy, 
the people of Oregon are to-tlay ready, de- j that they are above the average of the popu- 
sirous, willing, to come in. They have made .lation of the old States, in all that makes up 
a Constitution which is acceptable to them- manly and virtuous character. They have 
selves, and a Constitution which, however ; my sympathy ; and never will I oppress them 



it may be criticised here, after all, complies 
.'-ubstantially with every requirement which 
the Congress of the United States, or any 
considerable portion of either House of Con- 
gress, has ever insisted on in regard to any 
State. 

" It seems to me, therefore, to be trifling 
with the State of Oregon, trifling with the 
people of that community, and to be unnec- 
essary, and calculated to ])roduce an unfavor- 
able impression on the public mind, in regard 
to the consistency of the policy which we 
pursue in ailmitting States into the Union, to 
delay or deny this application. For one, sir, 
I think that the sooner a Territory emerges 
from its pi-ovincial condition, the better; the 
sooner the peoj)le are lelt to manage their 



by my vote or my voice. 

But, sir, what if the people of Oregon 
were really as bad as the most unfavorable 
construction of their Constitution, and the 
speech of my colleague (Mr. Dawes) would 
represent them to be, then what should we 
gain by refusing them admission into the 
Union ? If the objectionable features in 
their Constitution arc their true sentiments, 
and are placed in the organic law for use, 
and not for expediency, then surely the evil 
is deeper than the ink and parchment of their 
Constitution. It is in the hearts of the peo- 
ple and will not be eradicated by any harsh 
treatment that gentlemen on this floor may 
recommend. I doubt whether you will ef- 
fect the salvation of the people of Oregon 



own allairs, and are admitted to participa- i by heaping curses on their heads, or by ex- 
tlon in the responsibilities of the Government, I eluding them for unworthincss. You may 
the stronger and the more vigorous the i send them away from the door of the Capi- 
States which those people form will be. I J tol, but they will go thinking less of you, 
trust, therefore, that the question will be | and less subject thereafter to your influence, 
taken, and that the State may be admitted j They may come again with a hypocritical 



without further delav." 



Constitution, trusting to eflect by statute law 



Mr. Thayer. So much, then, in relation ! what you would not allow in organic law. 
to the first jirinciple which should govern our \ They may not come at all, or they may come 
action in the admission of States. And what, ! with a Constitution tolerating Slavery. Dis- 
sir, concerning the other ? How will it aflect j couragcd and repulsed by Northern votes — 



this present Confederacy of States, to admit 
the Territory of Oregon ? Why, gentlemen 
talk here asif we were discussing the question 
of admitting some new and unheard-of race 
of monsters and cannibals into the Union ! 
Sir, is not this injustice to the jieople of Or- 
egon V AVill they contaminate this Confed- 
eracy ? Just as much as their mountain 
streams will contaminate the Pacific ocean. 
I tell you, they may be inferior to us in edu- 
cation, in refinement, and in etiquette ; they | Frek Statk ? 

may not appear as well in the drawing-room But, sir, there is another argument which 
as some of our Eastern exquisites; but in | may influence some members who doubt the 
the sturdy virtues of honesty, of fidelity, of [security of this Union of States. By this act 
industr\-, and of endurance, they are above ^ which I now advocate, we shall bind firmly 
the average of tlie people of this Confeder- j to the old States, by indissoluble bonds, the 
acy. I regret that the gentleman from remotest portions of our possessions. This 



finding no sympathy where they had most 
right to expect it, they might not be able 
longer to resist the Slave-State party in the 
Territory, acting under the Dred Scott de- 
cision. Is it not right, therefore, for the 
lovers of Freedom to advocate the immediate 
transition of Oregon from the condition of a 
Territory in which Slavery is lawful, to the 
condition of a State in which it is forbidden ? 
"Which do we choose, a slave Tcrrritonj or a 



30 



Avill make pccurc all intermediate parts of the tl.e duties of this government to a position 
national doma.n. j where they will be, as was well said last scs- 

rhis, then, may be grateful assurance to sion by the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. 
such as want assurance about the permanency | Curi-y], " few and simple," as they should be. 
of the Union. For myself, I have not much \ It is in accordance with this view that I 
resix'ct for any such assurance, but I do have : shall oppose any thing that leads to compli- 
an utter contempt for any doubts on the sub- I cations — that siiall multiplv or extend our 
jvct. This Union, Mr. Speaker, is not a : provincial dependencies. 
thing to be argued for and advocated ; it is I shall oppose all protectorates over forei-n 
a tlnng settled, fixed, and determined. Far ; countries ; all military occupations and mili- 
transccn<ling m importance the temporary tary usurpations; all annexation of territorv, 
convenience of any one State or of all the : except as independent sovereignties acquired 
States, It IS in our hands, a trust, not for our and at the same time admittedlnto the Union 
posterity only, but for the world. We are | by treaty stipulations as States eciual to any 

linnnd tn fli.liT/i». if nntY-^iv^oI..,..! +^ .....IT I • . ^l • /"i /. i -.-... _ • 



bound to deliver it unimpaired to succeeding 
generations, and we will so deliver it. The 
Union is and will be. 

if, then, there is a great gain to the Con- 
federacy, is it not also better for the peoi)le 
of Oregon themselves that she should be ad- 
mitted into the Union V Is it l)etter that they 
shouhl remain under the tuition of tiiis Fed- 
eral Government — a non-resident Govern- 
ment — or that they should govern them- 
selves ? Why, sir, to contend against the 
advantages of self-government woukl seem to 
me unsuited to this place, and not to comport 
well with the history of this Republic; for 
the origin of this nation was a protest against 
a non-resident Government, and our history 
should be. For one, sir, I have no faith in 
that kind of government being exercised 
over Anglo-Saxons anywhere, and least of 
all have I faith in that kind of government 
being exercised by Republics anywhere ; and, 
thcre.'bre, to relieve a portion of our people 
from what I consider a curse — the curse of a 
non-resident domination — I will cheerfnllv 
vote for the admission of Oregon. 

Sir, tills non-resident control is a relic, as 
it was an invention, of ancient tyranny. It 
has coino down from the history of the old 
Romans, who had pro-consuls in Judea, in 
t'pam, in Gaul, in Germany, and in Britain ; 
and England has copied their example, and 
sent (fovernors and Governor-Generals to 
India, and to this continent also. Rut we 



in this Confederacy. It will never do lor us 
to imitate the despotisms of Europe. We 
must adhere to the original, simple plan of 
this Confederacy, which did not contemplate 
provincial dependencies, or armies and na- 
vies, necessary for their acquisition and con- 
trol. 

So far as we deviate from the simplicity 
of the plan of the ftuhers, just so far shall we 
advance towards danger, disaster, and de- 
struction. 

But, ]\Ir. Chairman, I did wish to review 
the action of the minority of the Committee 
on Territories in relation to this question, but 
my time has nearly expired, and I can only 
refer to it. 

They have reported the bill of the major- 
ity with an additional provision repealing the 
clause of the English bill restricting the right 
of Kansas to come into the Union "with a fess 
[)opulation than ninety-three thousand. Now, 
sir, I had supposed that the gentlemen of the 
minority of the committee would have voted 
for the bill which they have reported, but 
speeches have been made by two of the gen- 
tlemen wlio signed that report [Mr. Grow 
and Mr. Granger], in which they went ofT 
on an altogether different line of reasoning. 
They have talked about the unconstitution- 
ality of the Constitution of Oregon, and 
about its invasions of human rights, without 
confining themselves at all to the arijument 
of tiieir minority report. They argue that 



protested successfully against that kind of whoever may vote for the admission of the 
-.vcn,nicnt by the war of the Revolution ; State, will properly be hold responsible for 



and I look forward to the time when e^crj 
]ioition of our national domain shall be free- 
from it; when we shall have no provincial 
dependencies whatever; when we shall have 
• nothing but a combination of ecpial and .sov- 
ereign republics. Tlien, sir, ive mav brin'r 



all these outrages. And now I wish to know 
for what consideration the signers of that re- 
port are willing to ignore all these revered 
human rights, invaded and ruined by the 
Constitution of Oregon ? I have their reply 
III this report. On one condition they are 



J^^n^/ 



31 



•willing to sanction all these outrages; and 
tliat condition is, that a certain act concern- 
ing Kansas shall be repealed. If the report 
is in good faith there can be no other con- 
clusion. 



On the 2-lth of the same month, he took 
occasion once more to assert his views in re- 
lation to the best mode of winning the Terri- 
tories over to Freedom, Avliich is simply by 
giving to Free J^ahor fair pUi)/ in the struggle 
with Slave Labor. Hence the speech was 
itself entitled " Fair Play." It is one of the 
best of all his remarkable Congressional ef- 
forts. It is particularly hapj)y as illustrating 
his practical views on the whole subject under 
discussion, — views that no abstract theoriz- 
ing can hope to reach or overthrow. The 
reader will find, in its perusal, that he has 
come to know and admire the author of it 
more than ever. All the cavils of party press- 
es at«either its positions or arguments appear 
narrow and of no consequence, for they seem 
to be striving for mere partizan success, while 
he seems to be struggling only for permanent 
benefit and i-eal truth. 

Here is the speech: — 

Mu. CnAiiiM.vx : The gentleman irom 
Elaine [Mr. AVashburn], in his speech the 
other day, reconmiended to the Ileiuiblican 
]iarty to " note the policy of the Democrafie 
j>arty, and to learn wisdom from their oppo- 
nents." Advised by such high authority, and 
scorning no source of knowledge, however 
humble, I have for a few days made a study 
of (he discipline and policy of the Democratic 
party ; and what do I find V A wonderful toler- 
ation of hostile and conflicting principles and 
measures, prom[)ted by adverse and contend- 
ing interests. I believe tliat the plain of 
Shinar never witnessed about the base of the 
tower of Babel any such confusion of lan- 
guages as we see here of princij)lcs and meas- 
ures in the Democratic party. How do they 
stand upon the tarifl"? Some are for specific 
duties, some for ad i-alorem duties, and some 
for no duties at all. How concerning the 
Dred Siott decision, and the protection of 
slavery in the Territories ? Some are for the 
non-intervention of the federal government 
with slavery in the Territories, and some are 
for the direct establishment of slavery in the 
Territories by the federal power, as the jour- 
nal of this House will show, by the notice 



which has been given of a bill to be intro- 
duced for the protection of slavery in the 
Territories, and as the debate in the Senate 
yesterday will show ; while others are in favor 
of making all such schemes of protection null 
and void by the unfriendly legislation, or by the 
masterly inactivity of the settlers. And how 
about the acquisition of territory ? Some arc 
for acquiring it by fillibustering and the force 
of private crusades; some by the more digni- 
fied method of protectorates, military occupa- 
tions, and military usurpation ; some by pur- 
chase, and some by war. And how is it about 
the slave trade V Some are for re\ i^ iniij it, 
and some are utterly hostile to its revival. 
And so in reference to the Pacific Piaih-oad, 
and every other measure of public policy. I 
have said enough to show that there is a tol- 
eration in that party of the widest diversity 
of principles, opinions, and measures. 

Xow, sir, if I am to learn a lesson from this 
party, I think I may learn this lesson, — that 
while I would not tolerate any such latitude 
of opinion as would breed confusion in the 
llepublican party, I would tolerate such lib- 
erality of sentiment as shall not compel men 
who agree in practice to quarrel about niat- 
tei-s of faith. I do not advocate that proscrip- 
tive policy which would drive away from me 
men who do not agree with me about tlie im- 
portance or necessity or expediency of legis- 
lating against slavery, or for freedom in the 
Territories. AVhile I will not denounce the 
gentleman from Maine, for his favorite meas- 
ure, I shall expect the same toleration for my 
own. He may bow down in his chamber 
three times a day before the Wilniot proviso, 
with his windows open toward Jeiusalem, and 
I will not trouble him for that. But when he 
attempts to fit other Rejiublicans to his bed- 
stead, we shall very likely jirotest against any 
such act, especially if it involves the necessity 
of cutting us off at both ends. I maintain my 
right to think well of Wilmot proviso men, 
and to think well if I choose of those who are 
not "Wilmot proviso men. The Wilmot pro- 
viso is only a measure, not a principle. 

Now, sir, there are some • classes of men 
who profess to belong to the Republican party, 
to whom I do not pro^wse to address any re- 
marks upon this occasion, because I believe 
that, politically, they will not be made better 
and that they cannot be made worse. 

I shall first speak of a class which I will 
denominate the kigidly eightkous, who 



32 



claim that it is not cnoTigli that a State shall 
exclude salvcry from its limits, but that this 
act must proceed from most exemplary and 
Christian motives. The State must exclude 
slavery because it is a sin. It might as 
well be a slave State as a free State if it 
is not made free, upon the purest Chris- 
tian principles. These pinks of piety depre- 
cate any appeal to national or personal in- 
terest; they deprecate any argument which 
is based upon economical or pecuniary con- 
sideration as an attempt to contaminate the 
l)ui-ity of exalted anti-slavery sentiment, and 
to soil by earthly contact the pure and 
spotless anti-slavery standard of the North. 
"\"\ ith this class lean never agree, for I would 
rather see a State free for the Avorst reasons, 
than see it slave for the best reasons. 

Another class consists of the prk-emi- 
XKXTLY coxsisTKNT. Some years ago they 
pointed their guns at the enemy ; and they 
intend to fire where they first aimed, whether 
the enemy be there or not. [Laughter.] 
To-day jou find them jwuring their hot shot 
into the cold ashes of the enemy's extinct 
camp-fires. [Laughter.] And they say, " is 
it any reason because the enemy has changed 
his position, because he is unstable and incon- 
sistent, that ice should be wavering and in- 
consistent also?' [Laughter.] With this 
cla.ss I do not agree. I am for j^ointing our 
guns Avhere the enemy now is — for pointing 
them wlicre the enemy stands at the instant 
when we aj^ply the torch. 

There is anotJicr class, sir, composed of the 
political Cassandras of the Republican party, 
who are alwajs prophesying, in the middle 
of one great disaster, that another still greater 
is about to come — who are continually say- 
ing that slavery lias always had its own way, 
ahd always will have it — that slavery, under 
the Dred Scott decision, will yet be estab- 
lished in ]\Lassachusetts and New Hampshire 
— that secret intrigues are going on for estab- 
lishing it in Canada, as well as for putting j 
the White Mountains and Cape Cod under ' 
the lash. [Laughter.] I have an account 
to settle with these men. I have met them, ' 
and found them a great impediment to the ' 
progress of freedom in this country. In the ' 
contest for free men and free labor in Kan- ; 
sas, I affirm here tliat they were a gi-eater 
obstacle to our progress than the border ruf- \ 
fians, the cabinet and power of President I 
Pierce, or the bad travelling in the State of ' 



IMissouri ; for they were filling the country 
with the cry tliat Kansas was lost. \\\\h. 
c]uivcring lips and moist eyes they went about 
crying that all urns lost. The effect Avas to 
send hundreds and thousands of men, who 
would have joined our good colonists in Kan- 
sas, shivering away to the cold regions of 
Minnesota. I have no sympathy with these 
men. Of this class was Uzza in the days 
of David, who thought that because the 
oxen stumbled, the ark of the Lord would 
surely fall ; and he stretched out his trem- 
bling hand in support of Onniipotcnce. Smit- 
ten by the Power which his doubts had in- 
sulted, faithless Uzza died upon the spot. 
Why he died I ask no commentary to tell 
me. Why any such are left is not so clear. 
Without faitli, either in the power of God or 
the destiny of man, they libel freedom and 
slander freemen. The}- have no joy in the 
present and no hope in the future. They 
, seem predestined to disaster and defeat; and 
, woe to the party or project in which they as- 
j sume authority or exercise influence. 
I To a man of this class the present life is 
one perpetual nightmare ; and what the fu- 
j ture will be, who can say ? Can he be saved V 
! Can a man be saved without faith, or hope, 
I or works, with only repentance — and even 
: that consisting not in sorrow for his own sins, 
! but for other people's virtues ? [Laughter.] 
Why, what if by some chance he were once 
in the Holy City? — he would be no more 
I saved than he was before. He never would 
see the tree of life or the river of life, never 
: would have a harp in his hand — but a spy- 
; glass, and skulking about the battlements, 
I and peering off into illimitable space [laush- 
I ter] ; if he should chance to see Dred Sc^ott 
or the Supreme Court, even though they 
might be beyond the great gulf, he would 
think they were coming to establish slavery 
on the golden pavements of the New Jerusa- 
lem. [Laughter.] 

Now, sir, I do not address myself to these 
men. They bear the same relation to the 
Republican party that Cape Fear and Cape 
Lookout do to this continent. They scr\e 
only to keep people away from it. ' [Much 
laughter.] I address the continent of the 
Republican party, and not these insignificant 
though conspicuous capes and promontories. 
And, in doing it, I shall refer to first principles. 
It is an axiom in physics that one body 
must sustain to another, one of three rcla- 



oo 



tions. Tt must be cither loss, equal, or greater : 
and it is in accordance Avith the law ot" growth 
that ifone organized body is less than another, 
and, by natural and gradual accretions, shall 
at some time become greater, it must first be- 
come equal. Xow, sir, in politics it is also an 
axiom that it' one cause is inferior to another 
in position or in importance, it can never be- 
come superior except by first attaining to a 
position of equality. Now, sir, freedom and 
slavery are two causes in our politics, and it 
is claimed by gentlemen that the cause of 
freed(jm is in an inferior position politically 
(and this I assert too), and has been so for 
years. The question then is how it shall at- 
tain to an ecjual position, and. perhaps, here- 
after to a superior position. It can only attain | 
to tliat superior position in the legislation j 
of this Government, and in the executive 
power of this (Government, by first attaining 
to a position of ecjuality. And it is this policy 
of striving for this position of equality that I ' 
have advocated lor years ; and I am rejoiced 
that at the present time I am sustained in | 
tiiis argument by very liigh authority. I 
find that one of the distinguished Senators 
fi-om the State of New York [^Ir. Seward] 
made a speech last November, in which he 
took tliis position. Part of that speech was 
made in Kociiester, the other part of it was ' 
made a few days later in Home. ' 

The speech altogether contains two main 
propositions. The first proposition is this : 
that the Democratic party ought to be put | 
out of power. The second proposition is the 
nietliod by which this can be accomplished. ' 
Under the first head the speaker, not having 
much to prove, and tliereforo being free 
from the necessity of laboiious concentration 
(because a Northern audience was willing to 
assent witiioul argument) very naturally di- 
gressed from tlie strict line of logic, and dis- 
coursed freely upon a collateral philosophical 
question. He entered into a harmless phil- 
os()j)iiical speculation about the comparative 
\ itality of fi'ce labor, and of slave lal)or, and 
T think he came to the conclusion that free 
labor has the greater vitality. Tiiis I con- 
sider a very harmless speculation ; and had a 
similar one been indulged in, as it has often 
been, by a Southern statesman, and a contra- 
ry conclusion arrived at, no Northern man 
would have thought of taking exception to it. 
lie might iiave concluded, as Mr. Fitziiugh 
has done in his Sociology, as Southern ora- 
3 



tors have often aonc on the stump, and as 
Southern' editors have often done in their 
papers, that slave labor had the greater vital- 
ity, and would hereafter override free labor 
in the Northern States. Well, sir, so much 
for the very harmless speculation which has 
been very much misrepresented. But the 
sum total of the Senator's argument — the 
conclusion, which was for immediate and 
practical use — was what may be considered 
a sound national platform for the party 0}> 
posed to the Administration. It is broad 
enough for all the elements of the opposition 
to combine upon, and to occupy saPely. Now, 
sir, what is that platform ? What are the 
words of wisdom which give promise of vic- 
tory ? Here they are : 

" The work of to-day is to obtain securities 
for fair play in this great contest. Fair play 
was all tliat was left to James Buchanan and 
his administration to afibrd us. He promised 
us that miserable right — the remnant of all 
other valuable rights. Even that promise 
was broken, and that right has been treach- 
erously wrested from us the first year of the 
administration of James Buchanan. The 
President, without rebuke fi-om Congi-ess, and 
with the acquiescence of the Senate, suc- 
cessively removed Gov. Walker and Gov. 
Stanton, for yielding to the people of Kansas 
free, fair, and impartial elections. When 
the people of the State of Kansas by such 
elections repudiated the slavery Lecompton 
constitution, and avowed their unalterable 
determination to remain a community of free 
men, tlie Congress of the United States re- 
manded them to remain indefinitely a slave- 
holding Territory. Elections for slavery are 
held valid and lawful ; elections for freedom 
are deemed invalid, idle, and futile. Have I 
not said truly, then, that our first conquest 
must be tlic recovery of fairness and equality 
between freedom and slavery in the conduct 
of the administration, and of legislation at 
^\'ashiugton." 

'• Fairness and equality between freedom . 
and slavery in the conduct of the administi'a- 
tion and in the legislation at Washington I " ' 
What, sir, is this but non-intervention l)y the • 
federal government, either for freedom or ■ 
slavery in the Territories ? What is tliis but 
a national platform upon which all the ele-- 
ments of opposition to the present admin- 
istration can fairly stand ? I subscribe to 
that doctrine, and advocate a fair play par- - 



34 

ty, and a fair play President, upon a fair | the intervention of Congress for the estab- 
play platform; I am for foir play between , lishment of slavery in Kansas; and, sir, I 
section and section, between State and 
State; for fair play for our foreign poli- 
cy, and for fair play for our domestic poli- 
cy ; for fair play with England, France and 
Spain ; fair play with China and Africa ; for 
the acquisition of Cuba, Central America, and 
Mexico, by fair play, and by that only. Here, 
then, is the position which the opposition can 
fairly assume, and the platform has the high- 
est Republican authority. Sensible and prac- 
tical men will harmoniously endorse It, and 
be proud to stand upon it and defend it In 
the next national campaign. 

In relation to slavery in the Territories, 
and the connection of the fedei'al government 
therewith, there are three political positions, 
and only three. First, there is Intervention 
for slavei-y ; second, there Is Intervention for 
freedom ; and third, there is no Intervention 
whatever. What Is the present policy of 
the Democratic, party In relation to this ques- 
tion y and what has been its past position ? 
I say that ]);vrty has been, as It Is now, in fa- 
vor of Intervention for slavery. I say that 
while that party has advocated popular sov- 
ereignty, and has elected one President by 
that advocacy. It has always persistently 
voted against popular sovereignty. It voted 
against It In the spring of 1854, upon Sena- 
tor Chase's amendment to the Kansas bill, 
giving to the people of Kansas and Nebraska 
the right to choose ther own officers. It was 
voted against when the Toombs bill w'as 
voted for by the Democratic party. Imposing 
a constitution upon the people of Kansas 
without their approbation. It was voted 
against by the Democratic party when they 
voted for the Lecompton bill, which sought 
to Impose upon the people of Kansas a con- 
stitution, not only without their approbation, 
but In defiance of their solemn protest. It 



think they had a tool at that time which was 
well adapted to the uses for which It was de- 
signed. It was supple, pliant, and fitted for 
many uses. Iludibras had such an instru- 
ment — his dagger. 

" 'Twoulil scrape trenches or cliip bread, 
Tu;l^^t choose or bacou th()U!j,li it wcro 
To bait a mouse-trap would not care, 
'Twould make siiocs clean, and in the earth 
Set looks and onions and so furtli." 

So much for the past position of the Demo- 
cratic party In relation to intervention in the 
Territories. Now, what is Its present posi- 
tion ? Is that party now upon the popular 
sovereignty platform ? Did the debate In 
the Senate yesterday show that ? Are they 
not In favor of Intervention, and that of the 
fiercest kind, against freedom and for slavery 
in the Territories V And what does that no- 
tice mean upon your journal of a bill to be 
introduced which shall provide for the pro- 
tection of slavery In the Territories ? What 
mean those Southern journals when they de- 
mand that a federal law shall be made by 
Congress for the protection of slavery In the 
Territories ? I refer, first, to the Charles- 
ton (S. C.) News, which says : 

" If the constitution confers upon slavery 
the right to goto the Territories, as accord- 
ing to the Kansas Nebraska bill and the 
Dred Scott decision, it does, then it also im- 
poses the duty of protecting that right, and 
this cannot be done without positive Pro- 
Slavery legislation and a Federal Slave Code 
for the Territories." 

Again : The Richmond Enquirer says : 

" The right of property In slaves in the 
States Is now placed, practically as well as 
legally, beyond the reach of Federal legisla- 
tive encroachment. But in the Territories 
, the case Is different. It Is not sufhcient that 
j the decision of the Suj)reme Court prevents 
was again voted against in rejecting the | (jon„,.^,ss ^nd all its delegates from the pro- 
(Crltteiulen-Montgomery amendment, which i l,ibition of slavery In a Territory. There 
gave to the people of Kansas the opportu- ! niust be positive legislative enactment; a 
.nity of framinir their own constitution — of j civil and criminal code for the protection of 



choosing under what organic law they would 
.live. 

But, sir, while the Democratic party ex- 
'cluded Congress from intervention with slave- 
ry in Kansas and Nebraska, they did not ex- 
clude the President from Interfering by the 
use of his patronage and power. The Inter- 
veution of despotic unity was preferred to 



slave property in the Territories ought to be 
provided." 

In the same spirit is the following extract 
from the New York Daj'-Book : 

"Of course, the people of a Territory, 
when they frame their State constitution, 
may adopt or exclude slavery ; but wdille 
they are a Territory, if they fail to protect 



35 



property invested in the person or indus- 
trial capacity of a negro, they grossly violate 
eijual rights, and therefore are not author- 
ized to consider themselves Democrats. The 
■whole (jue.stion is resolved into this simple 
rigiit or no right to protection to slave prop- 
erty in the Federal Territories, and, as the 
Charleston News suggests, it must constitute 
the issue of 18C0." 

We find snrh opinions becoming prevalent 
in the Democratic party, and it is demanded 
that they shall be made the test of party 
fealty. Then we must come to the conclu- 
sion that the Democratic party is to-day 
against popular sovereignty; that it is in fa- 
vor of Federal intervention, of Executive in- 
tei'veiilion, legislative intervention, as well as 
a judicial intervention, for slavery in the Ter- 
ritories of the Union. 

AVell, sir, what is it proposed now lo op- 
pose to this jiro-slavery intervention in the 
Territories? Is it saitl that we will oppose 
to it the Wihnot proviso ? I respe(;t the 
sincerity of those who reeonnnend this as a 
])anacea for all the evils that tin-eaten our 
Territories, but I cannot highly esteem 
tiieir intelligence if they believe it can be 
applied. For how many years is it since 
any j)arty in Congress had the power to pass 
the AVilmot proviso in reference to the Ter- 
ritories? Quite a number. And how do 
the people of this country stand upon that 
(juestion ? In the last two Presidential con- 
tests they have repudiated tiiat measure, and 
t(j-day we find the people against it. Congress 
against it, and we have it intimated to us 
that the Snpri'mc Court would declare it un- 
constitutional. Then, under these embarrass- 
ments, shall we nnavailingly strive to apph' it 
until all the territory of the United States shall 
have been settled and its destiny sealed for- 
ever, either as .slave or frca. Then it is an im- 
]>ractlcable and an antitjuated issue, and sensi- 
ble and practical men will now cea.se to urge 
it as a ])arty policy. Such men now see that 
they could not apply any such prohibition if 
they would, and I hope they will not repudiate 
tho.«e who Avould not apply it if they could. 

If then, as I have shown, there can be no 
Federal intervention for freedom in the Ter- 
ritories, Ave can oidy choose between inter- 
vention Ibr slavery, and no intervention at 
all. Tiien, sir, without hesitation, while I 
deny no principle of the llepublican j)arty, I 
ad\ocate the adoption of the policy of no 



more Federal intervention with respect to 
slavery in the Territories. 

But what rcalhj is the position of the T^e- 
publlcan party upon this (question ? Can 
you show an instance in our history in 
which we have gone against honest popular 
sovereignty in the Territories? What act 
in this House, or in the Senate, will show 
that the Republican party has been against 
popular sovereignty? During the contest 
in Kansas all we asked was that the people 
should be let alone, and that they should 
have the right to do as they pleased. AVe 
voted for the Chase amendment in 18j4. 
And how did we vote last session upon the 
Crlttenden-^Iontgomery bill ? Every man 
upon this side of the House sustained it. 
Are we not then the party not only in favor, 
but also in possession of popular sovereignty? 
We have captured that gun before the enemy 
had even us#l it, and now we propose to test 
its range and accuracy by some experiments 
on the Democratic party. 

But does any man say that he voted for the 
Crittenden-^Iontgomery bill in an emergency, 
and that he sacrificetl his principles in doing 
it ? I doubt whether this will be said. I did 
not sacrifice my principles by that vote ; on 
the contrary, I voted in accordance with my 
principles. And, sir, I have but a poor re- 
spect for princ-iples that will not do in an 
emergency, — that will not do in a storm. 
Such principles are not fit to keep in fair 
weather. Well, sir, that is the policy of the 
Rejiublican party, — at least. It is the pi-actlce 
of the llepublican party, and non-intervention 
is perfectly consistent, therefore, with Its pres- 
ent principles. It is not only perfectly con- 
sistent for the party, but it is perfectly safe, 
as I win show you, for the cause of freedom. 
I can refer you to the liistory of Kansas. 
Kansas, without any protection for freedom, 
has become a free State, or at least she is this 
day prepared to be a free State, and will 
never be any thing less. In defiance of nu- 
merous obstacles in the way of obtaining her 
freedom, she has. bravely secured It. In the 
immediate vicinity of the Platte purchase, 
the most intensely pro-slavery portion of ]\IIs- 
souri, there, almost in the bosom of slave 
States, there, far removed from the States 
of the North, which furnish emigrants to the 
A\'est, and with all the force of the General 
Govermnent against freedom, and for slavery 
in the Territory, the free State heroes have 



36 



triumphed ; and not only that, but they have 
put forth many times tlie power Avhich -vvas 
requisite to accomplish the grand result. If 
it liad not been for Executive intervention, 
and for the cowardly predictions of faint- 
hearted anti-slavery men in the North, that 
Kansas Avould be lost, I think, sir, that the 
contest might have been ended before the 
year 185G. 

But as it was, notwithstanding all the ob- 
stacles in her way, the contest began to grow 
insipid during that year for want of opposition 
from the pro-slavery side, and I left it, as 
Atchison and Stringfcllow had already done. 
Since that time we know very well what has 
been the history of Kansas. It is now ap- 
parent that there are at least eight or nine 
free State men in that Territory to one slave 
State man. "Whatever may have been in- 
tended, such, sir, has been the effect of adopt- 
ing this principle, which has compelled North- 
ern men to rely upon themselves, and act 
upon their own responsibility in this matter 
of making free States. This is safer than to 
leave this question to Congress and to law. I 
have a thousand times more confidence in the 
people than I have in Congress on this sub- 
ject. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, compare the resources 
of these two causes that contend for pre-emi- 
nence in the Territories, — free labor and slave 
labor. How do we find the wealth and num- 
bers of the North when contrasted with those 
of the South ? I shall not dwell upon this 
point, for on a former occasion I ojiened that 
greatest book of martyrs, — the Census of the 
United States, — and showed hoAV these facts 
were. 

But how do the North and South compare 
in the power of combination ? Why, we men 
of the North, called the Northern hive, live 
in towns and villages. Even our agricultural 
districts are quite densely peopled. We have, 
in Massachusetts, one hundred and thirty men 
to the square mile. If there is any difficulty 
abroad or at home, — if there is any need for 
immediate action or remote action, it is easy 
for us to assemble, and consult, and determine 
what action is needed, and Avhat shall be most 
effective. And, sir, when it was necessary to 
put some colonies into Kansas, I found' no 
difficulty in having meetings in these towns 
and villages at very short notice. Plans were 
^formed for making colonies, and for taking 
possession of the country in dispute, and thus 



the result contemplated was accomplished. 
But how can any such concert of action exist 
in that part of our country where there is 
only eighty-nine one-hundredths of a man to 
a square mile ! What chance of holding 
meetings, of kindling enthusiasm, of taking 
council, and of laying plans for accomplishing 
grand results ? None whatever. 

Then, sir, added to this ready combination, 
we also have great facilities of locomotion. 
Our people can migrate with but little diffi- 
culty. If there were a meeting to-night to 
put a colony into Kansas, all the arrangement 
might be perfected, and conqilete preparation 
made for starting in two weeks. The next 
day after the meeting you would see flaming 
hand-bills on the streets headed, " IIo for 
Kansas ! " " Property for Sale ! " Daguerreo- 
types of some " familiar faces," and perhaps 
the old homestead, would be taken, and in 
two weeks the colony, on the lightning train, 
following a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar 
of fire by night, would be going on its way to 
their prairie home. 

How can a Southern planter hope to rival 
this speed and readiness of transition ? After 
he has determined to emigrate, his plantation 
is to be sold, and the purchaser is to be hunted 
up, and much time is required. And after a 
purchaser is found, credit must be given of 
from one to twenty years. But suppose ail 
this accomplished, and the whole train of ser- 
vants made ready for the journey, how like a 
funeral procession would they appear loiter- 
ing along through the swamps of Alabama 
and Mississippi. No, sir, you cannot compete 
with us in this game of emigration. We evi- 
dently have the advantage of you every way. 
You have not i)Ower to make a contest in this 
matter interesting. I say this in no sj^irit of 
malignant exultation. lam laying down facts, 
and I wish Southern men to understand their 
bearing and inevitable consequences. 

But, sir, the Southern planter does not take 
his force of negroes to a disputed Territory. 
The case which I was just now supposing 
never really occurs in practice. It did not 
once occur during the contest for the Terri- 
tory of Kansas. I have never heard of a 
single slaveholder who took there even as 
many as five negroes. 

The spirit of devotion and the spirit of 
Christianity sometimes jirompt to great sacri- 
fices, but I am compelled to believe that the 
Southern planters are few in number who 



37 



^'<v^ 



-will hazard the loss of their slaves, even for 
the grand purj)Ose of securing " scope and 
verge " to African Christianization. 

If, then, there is no motive of Christianity 
potent enough to influence slaveholders to 
move with tlieir slaves to the Territories of 
the "West, there certainly can be no other 
sufficient inducement. There can be no 
pecuniary inducement to convey slaves where 
the very soil under their feet will be in dis- 
pute, and where the slaves themselves may 
be confiscated by an organic law excluding 
slavery from the new State, or by the statute 
law of the Territory, called " unfriendly leg- 
islation." 

Again, sir, there is a converting power in 
these free State colonies, and it is a wonder- 
ful power. I assert, on the best authority, 
that the majority of the inhabitants of Kansas, 
who went there from slave States, are to-day 
free State men. They came in contact with 
these Northern communities, they learned 
some facts of which they were not before 
cognizant, and they made up their minils 
that it was best for them and their children 
that Kansas should be a free State. This 
converting influence e.\tended to the Gover- 
nors of the Territory. " Tlie extinguishers 
themselves took fire," and to this day they 
give a charmingly brilliant light. 

Now, sir, in addition to these resources, 
contrast the causes themselves, which are in 
conflict. Contract free labor with slave labor. 
AVhat are their histories and what their rel- 
ative power ? Free labor has covered the 
once sterile hills of New England with or- 
chards and gardens and corn-fields. It has 
filled our valleys with the music of machinery 
and the hum of busy industry. The same 
creating power has built thriving cities and 
towns upon our western waters, and clothed 
the prairies with fields of waving grain. Scal- 
ing the Rocky Mountains, the same majestic 
]»ower has opened the golden gates of the 
Pacific, and has transformed the solitary wil- 
derness, 

" Whore rolled the Oregon, .inil heard no sound, 
Save his own dasliinys," 

into a prosperous State, destined to become 
the mojt important seat of commerce and 
nuinufactures on our Western coast. 

Here are some of the trophies of free labor. 
Others yet, and greater, will be secured in 
the future. Stronger than Briareus, and pos- 



sessing more arms than the giant monster 
brought to defend the throne of Jupiter 
against assailing Titans, free labor, unaided 
by law, relying solely on its own inherent 
energy, will alwajs be found able to protect 
its own inheritance. 

But where are the triumphs of slave labor? 
I Avill not reply, — I press this comparison no 
further. 

Now, sir, there is no chance of making 
another slave State from any Territory be- 
longing to this Confederacy. I state this as 
a flilr and well-founded conclusion, that it 
may be considered by men from all portions 
of the country. I think that sensible men 
from the South already consider it a settled 
fact. What need, then, of quarrelling about 
measures for securing what is already secure ? 
Security is all we ask, and that we have. 
That is the grand result of a contest to which 
you invited us, and to which we reluctantly 
came. We did not propose to }ou this very 
unequal game of emigration. It was a game 
which was proposed by the Democratic party, 
and the South enlisted in it, under the lead 
of that party. And what was the stake? 
You compelled the North to stake Kansas on 
that game, while you voluntarily offered to 
stake all the other Territories. For one, 1 
was ready to accept that challenge. I was 
ready to enter iqion that game upon such 
terms. I did do it. I do not now regret it. 
I do not want it otherwise than it is; for all 
that we have lost in achieving the victory 
that we have gained is more than ten thou- 
sand times repaid in that disciplined army of 
freemen, who are determined to see that all 
is right, from ^linnesota to the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. These are the facts, and it is better for 
the whole country that such are the facts. 

There are two blunders that the South has 
made in following the lead of the Democratic 
party. The first is the blunder of the free 
trade policy, which has compelled us to leave 
our native homes and make free States in the 
West. We could not be idle, and when you 
would not let us make cloth in New England, 
we have gone about making States on the 
prairies. What, now, would have been the 
result, if an opposite policy had prevaile<l ? 
AVhat, if the South and the Democratic party 
had allowed abundant protection to our man- 
uf\\cturing industry ? By that protection our 
manufiictures in New England would have 
increased in nearly the same ratio as the pro- 



38 



duction of cotton in the Soutlicrn States. 
That has been the foot essentially with the 
cotton manufactures of England. "Why would 
it not have been so with our own, liad they 
been sufficiently protected. But ours have 
remained almost .stationary for the want of 
this protection. We have therefore gone about 
making markets for our future products, and 
in that we have done well. If our manufac- 
turing industry ha<l been protected as I sug- 
gested, New England would to-day have had 
double her present population, and I think 
that our free States would not have extended 
one whit beyond the Mississippi. I doubt 
whether they would have gone beyond Indi- 
ana. The South could have taken possession 
of the great West by that policy ; she would 
have become the agricultural power of the 
Union emphatically. But now free labor has 
already taken possession of much, and, as I 
have shown, will yet take possession of the re- 
mainder of the public domain. The thing is 
inevitable. It must come. I do not stand 
here, as a New England man, to find fault 
with these results ; whatever may be said about 
the motives which secured them, the results 
are good. AVe have secured for all future 
time, the best market in the world, and New 
England will yet see brighter and better days 
than she has ever yet seen. No portion of 
the country can ever compete with her in the 
manufacture of cloths, or of boots and shoes ; 
no portion can ever compete with her in ship- 
building, or in the carrying trade of the At- 
lantic coast. She has now prepared for her- 
self this extensive market of free States, which 
is every day increasing. The difference be- 
tween a free State market and a slave State 
market is almost beyond calculation. It is a 
difference based both on the quantity and the 
quality of the goods which we manufacture, 
as well as on the security for pay. Who, then, 
can condemn us for having eidistcd in this 
crusade for freedom in Kansas with so much 
zeal, when we understood that her freedom 
would inure to the benefit of New England 
industry hereafter forever V 

Some men may have had a more exalted 
motive — no doubt many had — no doubt there 
was nnich of sentiment, and much of benev- 
olence and Christianity also, in these efforts; 
but if there had been nothing but wise pecu- 
niary forecast in them, even that would have 
been reason enough for our honest efforts to 



make froe States. Here, then, v/o see that 
the free-trade policy of the slave States has 
effectually restricted slavery and extended 
freedom. 

The second grand political blunder of the 
South, under the lead of the Democratic 
party, was the repeal of the lilissouri Com- 
promise. When you rested on the pledges 
of implied law, you were sure of securing for 
slavery a large portion of the public domain ; 
but when, under the delusive hope of ac- 
quiring Kansas, you invited the North to con- 
tend with you in this game of emigration, 
you abandoned the last solitary hope of slav- 
ery extension on this continent. This Kan- 
sas contest has created more working anti- 
slavery than all other causes in our history. 
To be sure, we had some dreaming senti- 
mentalists before, who felt enough, but who 
expended their feeling in harmless speeches 
and resolutions. There were, also, some i>o- 
litical anti-slavery men, who relied on law 
and nothing else to restrict slavery and ex- 
tend freedom. But the repeal of that com- 
promise gave us free State settlers instead of 
free State sentiments. It made the people 
rely upon themselves rather than on law and 
politirians. It has given us a race of workers 
instead of a race of wishers ; and now, what- 
ever may come hereafter, we shall always re- 
member that the surest defence of fi'eedom Is 
a guard of free men at the point of conllict. 
The history of that conflict has shown us that 
the extension of freedom has no necessary 
connection with the success of party politics ; 
that the people, independent of political or- 
ganizations, can- make free States, even when 
the whole power of this government is exer- 
cised against them. Who, then, can for a 
moment doubt concerning the I'esult when 
the people shall have fair play and non-inter- 
vention in the Teri'itorles by the Federal 
Government, instead of perpetual and per- 
sistent federal intervention for slavery ? 

These two comprehensive blunders of the 
South, luuler the Democratic party — -the free 
trade policy and the emigration contest — in- 
duced by the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, have secured beyond question the free- 
dom of every foot of the national domain. 
In commemoration of these transcendent 
Southei'n illusions, I think the abolitionists 
ought to erect cue grand enduring monu- 
ment. 



39 



IIow, then, can this policy of non-inter- 
vention in the Territories, which I have ad- 
vocated, be embodied and made practical ? 
There are two ways by which that may be 
accomplished. One way is, by allowing the 
people of the Territories to elect all their 
officers. I am utterly opposed to the organ- 
ization of another Territory without such a 
provision in the organizing act. Another 
way is, to allow no more Territorial organ- 
ization whatever. Sonic men may consider 
this as unsafe. I do not recommend it now 
as a policy. I surjr/est it as a policy to be 
considered, whether it might not be better 
hereafter, never, in any way, to increase our 
provincial dependencies. Such dependen- 
cies do not become this government. They 
are entirely hostile to the genius of republi- 
can institutions. There is nothing in the or- 
igin of this nation which shouhl encourage 
this provincial system for our Territories. I 
would feel perfectly safe to allow our emi- 
grants, with tlic Bible and the common law, 
with the axe and the plough, to go into the 
national domain and take care of themselves. 
How would such a jjolicy affect the Treasury 
of the United States? It would save us mil- 
lions of dollars annually. Our people would 
then go forward in solid phalanx. They 
would be able to protect themselves. There 
would be no deterioration in education or 
morals ; for the settlers, living contiguous to 
each other, could support schools and church- 
es. We would then have no difficulty what- 
ever arising from Indian wars, and no diffi- 
culty arising from the numerous applications 
of Territorial office-seekers. 

Sir, we have history on our side in favor 
of that policy. The people of Oregon gov- 
erned themselves for ten years before the 
Congress of the United States extended their 
l)rotecting hand over the colony. They had 
a perfect system of governnuuU — a perfect 
system for the administration of justice. 
They had a symmetrical ami well-appointed 
government in all its branches. They estab- 
lished post oflices and post roads. According 
to the testimony of the first (iovernor of that 
Territory, e^ery thing Avas progressing with 
as much regularity and order and success as 
it could have been if it had been all planned 
by the powers in this city, and put in oper- 
ation by their agents. But we have a pres- 
ent example. Dacotah is to-tlay without a 
Territorial government, and yet we hear of 



no disturbances there. The people have es- 
tablished a government for themselves, and 
I much doubt whether it is in the power of 
Congress to improve it by establishing, in its 
stead, a non-resident jurisdiction. But, sir, 
there are earlier examples of the successful 
working of this policy than are furnished by 
either Oregon or Dacotah. I refer to the 
early colonies of Plymouth, Providence, and 
New Haven, whose histories are household 
words. 

Wherever you look, you find that our 
peojile, whether they be few or many, are 
abundantly able to take care of themselves. 
Therefore, I suggest, as a policy to be con- 
sidered — whether there shall hereafter be 
another Territory organized In the national 
domain — whether Ave have not had sectional 
quarrels enough and difficulties enough about 
provincial dependencies, to induce us to create 
no more, and as speedily as possible to get 
rid of Avhat Ave noAV have. 

XoAV, sir, I have advocated an open field 
for a fiiir conflict betAveen these two opposing 
systems of labor. If you, sir, ckilm that slave 
labor is a divine institution, I claim that free 
labor is a divine institution, and I, for one, 
am Avilling that hereafter the two institutions 
shall honestly contend and grapple, and that 
the stronger shall prevail, and I avIU acknoAvl- 
edge that the one Avhich shall prove the 
stronger in a fair contest Is the more divine. 
Now, sir, in all that I have said upon this 
subject, I have noAvhere denied the poAver of 
Congress to exclude slavery from the Terri- 
tories. On the contrary, I believe that power 
is clearly established, not only by legal con- 
struction of the highest authority, but also 
by the authority of our history and practice. 
Still, sir, I should deem the exercise of that 
poAver inexpedient at the present time If It 
could be applied. Nothing should be at- 
tempted by law AvhIch can be accomplished 
Avithout laAA'. The extension and security of 
free labor cannot be effected by law, but by 
Avork. It Avould be a hazardous security for 
the North to rely on law to prohibit slavery 
in the Territories, when she can so much 
more safely rely upon herself. But, sir, Ave 
haA'e no power to prohibit It b}' laAv, and 
since Ave have not, I do not regret the fact ; I 
say that I am Avilling that this conflict should 
go on, and that it should come to a decision 
Avhich Is based upon the merits of the con- 
tending systems, and upon nothing else. And 



40 



the more chcerrully do I assent to this ar- 
rangement, because it will furnish a sound 
basis of legislation to ages yet to be. But if 
to-day slavery is obstructed by law, if to-day 
slavery is crushed out by the legal enactments 
of this General Government, and not by the 
laws of the communities in which it is prac- 
tised, then Avhat objection could be urged 
when a future generation, here or elsewhere, 
shall propose to establish slavery instead of 
free labor V Why, it would be said that slav- 
ery did not have a fair trial in the United 
States of America; that it was crushed by 
the opposing force of law; that it did not fall 
from its own inherent weakness and lack of 
vitality ; and there might be force in that ar- 
gument. 

But, now, let the question be determined by 
the merits of the two contesting s}stems, and 
let the mighty and majestic power of free 
labor overthrow and destroy slave labor in a 
fair fight, as it surely will, then what will be 
the effect upon the future V Why, if any 
legislator shall then presume to suggest to 
this nation, or to any other, that slavery is 
better than freedom, and shall make an hon- 
est proposition that it be established, the stu- 
dent of history will meet him, and, turning 
back to the records of this contest, will show 
him the evidence of the invincible power of 
freedom, and of the inherent imbecility of 
slavery. He will trace the majestic progress 
of free labor all the way across this continent, 
from the granite hills of New England to the 
rocky ramparts of the Pacific. He will show 
that it was mightier than Presidents and 
Princes, Courts and Counsellors, Cabinets and 
Congresses. "While slavery, nurtured and 
caressed by the whole power of this confed- 
eracy, appeared but a dwarfed and impotent 
cripple, in this contest with the heaven-born 
giant. Then, sir, ages hence, when the ac- 
tors in these present scenes shall have been 
forgotten, should it be proposed again to es- 
tablish slaveiy, in this or in any other land, 
the people will ponder upon the progress and 
the grand result of this last great battle be- 
tween these hostile powers, and will proclaim 
with one voice tliat freedom, having foirly 
conquered, shall evermore remain in posses- 
sion of the field, and of the well-earned lau- 
rels of victory. 



T!ie vexed Utah question was on the car- 
pet during the next session of Congress, and 



Mr. Thayer gave expression to his views on 
roLYGAMY, on the 3d of April, of the pres- 
ent year. His individuality of thought is 
plainly stamped on the speech, and his genius 
for solving knotty problems in politics in a 
practical way is brought into the foreground 
more than ever. The army had been tried 
in Utah, but to no purpose ; tlie topic only 
returned upon Congress to haunt it with a 
consciousness of its own inefRciency. In this 
dilemma, the plan suggested by Mr. Thayer 
was hailed as an ingenious one, certainly as 
a peaceable one, and, what is best of all, as 
a perfectly practical one. Not all legislators 
can say this of their suggestions. Ilis plan 
was for a reconstruction of the old territorial 
boundaries, so as to divide up Utah between 
the ijopulation at Pike's Peak, and that in 
Carson Valley ; and thus the people theinxelves, 
rather than Congress, would dispose of the 
evil of polygamy on the spot. The simple 
proposition shows its author to be of a states- 
manlike turn, and a man to be looked to in 
any public emergency. 

Said INIr. Tiiayeii — ]\Ir. Speaker, it has 
become apparent, in the progress of this de- 
bate, that there is at least one question on 
which the representatives of all portions of 
the country may agree. Every member from 
every section of the Union is ready to assert 
the odious criminality of polygamy. It is en- 
couraging, it is refresliing, to know that there 
is at least one subject on which there is no 
sectionalism, in relation to which we have 
not heard the Representatives of Nor(h Car- 
olina boasting that their people are much 
better than those of ]\Iassachusetts, nor the 
Representatives of the State of New York 
boasting that their people are better than 
those of Mississippi. 

There is really, now, one practical ques- 
tion before us for our decision ; and, sir, in 
my remarks upon it, I shall not treat it as an 
abstraction. I shall not treat it as a figure 
of speech, nor as a legal technicality. Po- 
lygamy is an existing fact ; and as an exist- 
ing fact, while I agree with members from 
every part of the country in denouncing it, I 
will so act as to insure its most speedy exter- 
mination. Is this a fact, sir, which began to- 
day, or yesterday, or last week ? I should 
suppose, from the zeal which is manifested 
here, that it never was heard of till the be- 
ginning of this session of Congress. 



zc^r 



41 



But, sir, some thirteen years ago, one 
Brigliam Young, a shrewd and selfish and 
unscrupulous adventurer, led certain ^lor- 
nions from Illinois, or from Missouri, across 
■what was then called the great American 
desert, by a long and wearisome journey, to 
tlie basin of the Great Salt Lake. Poor, de- 
luded, ignorant fanatics were his followers, 
who, from having no religion at all, had been 
captivated by the theories of Joe Smith, and 
had joined the ranks of the Latter Day 
Saints. From time to time, there have been 
accessions to their number. Year after year, 
they have come from Wales and Scotland, 
from England and Germany, and fron^ the 
States of this Confederacy. About two years 
ago, they attained their highest power. They 
are now declining in strength, harmony, and 
consolidation, and are diminishing In num- 
bers. As a separate and peculiar connnunlty, 
they are doomed to si)eedy extinction. Con- 
gress has cndiu-cd their huM-easing strength, 
and the Insolence of their highest power, 
witliout action. Can we not possibly endure 
tiieir decline and e.\tcrmInatIon, without this 
e.xhibitiou of paper authority and of spas- 
modic morality V 

In the course of these thirteen years of 
jMormon history, we have had a Whig Ad- 
ministration, we have had two Democratic 
Administrations, and at one time, for one 
Congress, the llepublieans had the organiza- 
tion of this House; and sir, there never has 
been an act passed against this crime, to 
make it a peual offence. There it was, be- 
fore the eyes of the country, before the world, 
and before Congress; but still no party, until 
this day, has taken the responsibility of pro- 
posing that it should be abolished by penal 
statute and by force of arms. Now there 
seems, as I said before, to be a feeling in this 
House, not known in the community at all, 
which could be accounted for only on the 
supposition lliat polygamy never was heard 
of till to-day. There is a spasm, sir, of mo- 
rality, or a paroxysm, or a panic, or some- 
thing that seems to impel certain men to feel 
the necessity of voting, and of voting noxi\ 
against polygamy, at all hazards. 

]\Ir. Reaoax. I desire to correct tlic gen- 
tleman on a point of fact, lie Is mistaken 
in supposing that nothing has ever been done 
upon this subject. I introdued a resolution 
during the last Congress, which was adopted 



by the House, referring the subject to the 
Judiciary Committee for Inquiry. 

Mr. TiiAYKii. I said no act had been 
passed. That was my assertion. And now, 
sir, there is most intense zeal manifested that 
something shall be voted — voted, not done — 
to exterminate polygamy in Utah. AVorstof 
all, it appears that this act of voting would 
seem to satisfy some consciences, even though 
this very vote should prolong the existence 
of that iniquitous Institution. It would seem 
to satisfy some consciences — I will not call 
them stupid, or sluggish, or dead — tliat they 
voted against polygamy. Sir, if the ability 
of these gentlemen to execute were equal to 
their zeal to enact, we might almost say that 
omnipotence would be one of their weak- 
nesses. But It is not proposed to execute ; 
and there Is no party in this country to-day, 
and there has been no party in this country 
during the last thirteen years, that would 
dare to vote bayonets and revolvers to shoot 
or stab polj-gamy out of Brigham Young and 
his followers. What, sir, do the Judiciary 
Conmiittee ask us to do ? What claim do 
tiiey present for our votes in favor of this bill ? 
Wliat Is claimed V Why, that the Congress 
of the United States sliould make an expres- 
sion of opinion, so that the world may know 
that the United States of America are really 
opposed to polygamy? How much better, 
INIr. Speaker, we shall stand before the na- 
tions of the earth, when we shall have really 
shown them — what they may now be la 
doubt about — that we are actuallij opposed 
to pol}-gamy V "When we shall have shown 
it, not by doing any thing against the iniquity, 
but by a solemn vote, recorded upon the 
journals of this House ! 

Now, sir, I say that any such expression 
of sentiment is supei-fluous. There is no 
State in this Union that has not made polyg- 
amy a penal offence already; and what is 
the combined expression of the Representa- 
tives of these States, more than the individ- 
ual expression of each of the States acting 
in its individual capacity ? Do we by this 
combined action, add any thing to the force 
of all that separate action ? Certainly not. 
The world understands now well enough that 
this country is opposed to polygamy, and it 
never will understand It any better by a vote 
of Congress, the whole effect of which will 
be to prolong the existence of that Institution. 



42 



Tlien, sir, as an expression of sentiment, this 
Lill is superfluous. But more than that. It 
is ui'ged by some as a penal statute. Will it 
be enforced '? I say no; and I tell you that, 
should the bill pass, neither you nor I ■will 
ever live to see a party which Avill dare to 
vote money and instruct the President to use 
it in putting in operation and in enforcing 
the penal statute which this bill proposes. 

Then, sir, what does it amount to ? I say, 
as a penal statute it is powerless. I will not 
go into the argument now to show why it 
ought not to be enforced, or the cruelty of 
attempting to enforce it against these men, 
who never could understand why the bill was 
enacted. I Avill not go into the argument about 
the expense of millions that it would cost 
this Government to enforce it ; or that it 
v/ould give the Mormons reason to charge 
that we have made use of persecution against 
them, driving them to the mountains and 
hunting them there like jiartridgcs, or that it 
would inevitably prolong the existence of the 
institution which it ])roposcs to abolish. All 
these questions I pass by, for there is nobody 
here who claims that it is the purpose of any 
party to vote money or instructions to enforce 
this penal statute. 

But, sir, it is said that the honor and au- 
thority of the United States must be vindi- 
cated. The honor and authority of the 
United States vindicated, indeed, by a law 
which its very framers admit is, from its very 
inception, a dead letter ! Nobody here now 
dare stand up and ])ledge his party to enforce 
this law. I challenge any man of any partv 
to do that. I claim tliat it is a sham ah initio ; 
that it is a false pretence; and I never will 
vote for a sham or a false pretence, by what- 
ever man or whatever part}- it may be brought 
into this House. I do not deal in such thino-s, 
sir, especially upon practical questions like 
this now before us. The reasons that I have 
given are sufficient to govern my vote upon 
this bill, and that vote will be against it ; that, 
as an expression of the moral sense of the 
country, it is superfluous ; that as a penal 
statute, it is powerh^ss ; that, as a vindication 
of the honor and authority of this Govern- 
ment, it is worse than futile ; for it would 
bring both the honor and authority of the 
Government into ridicule and contempt. 

Now, sir, if these are facts, and if that is 
the prospect before us, should this bill be ele- 
vated to the dignity of a law by our votes? 



Moral reformations should never be attempted 
by law, which can be accompliL.4icd without 
the aid of law. This Avould be true, even 
were the law proposed sure to effect the con- 
templated object, even if it were a law made 
and enforced by the political community 
where the offence existed. What excuse, 
then, can gentlemen give for a law like this, 
sure not to accomplish the object contem- 
plated, made by a non-resident power, and 
intended never to be enforced ? 

Now, Mr Speaker, let us iiu^uire whether 
some act cannot be done which shall prove a 
perpetual and insurmountable barrier to the 
progress of this gigantic monstrosity. I am 
happy to be able to say that I believe- that a 
solution — a peaceful, quiet, easy, natural, 
and practical solution ■ — of this question is 
now within our reach. I am happy in the 
belief that the gold mines of Pike's Peak 
and the silver mines of Carson Valley do now 
furnish us a solution of this ve.Kcd question 
of polygamy. I have therefore proposed an 
amendment to this bill, that the Territory of 
Utah, together with a part of Kansas and 
Nebraska, shall be divided into two land dis- 
tricts, in such a way that the IMormon jieople 
shall be divided nearly eouall}' between the 
two. 

Now, sir, what are the facts about popula- 
tion ? I come now to an argument which ad- 
dresses itself directly to the judgment of the 
House, — an argument not of theories, but of 
facts. The Mormons, by the best intelligence, 
by the highest authority I can get, are to-day 
about forty thousand people. I have it from 
officers of the United States army who have 
been in Utah during the last two years, and 
they assure me that not more than one-seventh 
of this population of Mormons are voters. 
What are the facts in relation to the popula- 
tion of the two proposed land districts? I 
have the opinion of the Delegates from Jef- 
ferson, Kansas, and Nebraska, and numerous 
others, that there are now within the limits 
of the proposed land district of JeflTcrson forty 
thousand men, and that there are at least in 
that district twenty thousand voters ; and we 
have it from papers last received from Cali- 
fornia, that there are now in Carson Yalh-y 
at least thirty thousand men, and not less than 
fifteen thousand voters. I believe there has 
been a rapidity of increase of population in 
these districts which has no parallel in the 
history of this country ; not even in the case 



^(ri^ 



of California. Why, sir, at the rate of increase 
now going on, it is confidently expected that 
at the next session of Congress these people 
■will come here with the right to be admitted 
as sovereign States. Then, sir, you may de- 
feat the policy of these ^lormons at once, by 
erecting these land districts, which have al- 
ready more than five times the voters of the 
Jlormon jjojjulation, and which population is 
rapidly increasing, while the number of Mor- 
mon voters is diminishing. AVith this pros- 
])ect before us, is tliere any risk that Mormon- 
ism will not be e-\terminated by local law, 
provided we pass this amendment, constitut- 
ing the land districts proposed ? "Would not 
a local law be much better to accomplish the 
purpose than a law made by a non-resident 
power ? I contend that the law of a non-resi- 
dent power is only fit to be laughed at and 
despised. The true authority, in my judg- 
ment, and the only authority worthy of being 
regarded, is the law that is made, approved, 
and enforced, by the peo[>le where it is law. 

Tiiat local law is what ^lormonism, polyga- 
my, or any other crime, cannot evade. This 
non-resident law may do very well as capital 
for politicians; it may do for political preten- 
ces and shams; but it never will do for prac- 
tice. 1 am not disposed to spend any time 
now in showing this House the ine.xtricablc 
didicuUies and complications this precedent 
would lead us into if ado])tcd. Tliere is no 
end of them. 

Do gentlemen propose that Congress shall 
follow u[) this mode of reforming all abuses 
that may occur upon the public lands of the 
United Slates? Shall we make laws against 
drunkenness, and profanity, and Sabbath- 
breaking, and larceny, — in short, shall we 
make a com[)lete criminal code for our public 
lands, and establish a police and judicial force 
sullicicnt to arrest and convict and punish all 
olfenders on this immense area ? If this is to 
be our policy, then this bill proposes a good 
beginning. We shall probably have enough 
to do for some time to come, without attend- 
ing at all to the legitimate j)urposes of the 
Government. Local law is the true remedy 
for these evils. The operation of such law, 
as contemplated in my amendment, will be 
suflicient for the speedy abolishment of do- 
lygamy. 

Js it to be supposed that one hundred thou- 
sand miners at Pike's Peak, and the same 
number ol' miners at Carson Valley, Avithout 



any women at all, will allow a monopoly of 
women at Salt Lake ? [Laughter.] Sir, I do 
not agree with gentlemen who denounce these 
men in the Territories, these hardy pioneers, 
as men of no education, as men of no refine- 
ment, as men destitute of intelligence and 
moral power. I have never called them 
" runaways and outlaws." They are men of 
more vigor of body and of mind, of more 
heroism and enterprise, of more power of en- 
durance, of more persistency, and of more 
character, than the people of the old States. 
They are also superior in intelligence to the 
average of the people in the old States. I 
doubt not, sir, that there are some educated 
men in Carson Valley, and some educated 
men in Pike's Peak ; some who have read 
histoiy, and some of them may have read 
Roman history. [Laughter.] 

I feel perfectly secure, then, in the position 
that Mormonism and polygamy, and all things 
connected therewith, should be left to the 
local laws of the two land districts which I 
propose, by the action of Congress, to estab- 
lish. Now, sir, is it safe to leave poljgamy 
to the cure of a democracy ? Is is safe to 
leave it to a republican form of government, 
made by the people themselves, in these two 
land districts ? Every man acquainted with 
the history of the world knows that polygamy 
never has existed under a democratic or re- 
publican form of government. Every man 
who knows any thing, even without reading 
history, would decide beforehand that it never 
could exist under such a form of government 
while the sexes continue to be equal in num- 
bers. Wherever it has existed, — in Turkey, 
in Arabia, among the chiefs of Central Africa, 
or among the aborigines of America, — it has 
always been protected by absolute military 
despotism. It can be sustained under no other 
system of government. 

Then I hold that the argument is conclu- 
sive, that, by suly'ecting polygamy to the ac- 
tion of the democracy of these two land dis- 
tricts, it would most effectually put an end to 
it. This is one reason why I shall vote for the 
amendment to the bill as I have proposed it. 

But it may be inquired, why we do not or- 
ganize the Teri-itories of Jefferson and Neva- 
da, instead of simply constituting them land 
districts ; why we do not pass an organic act. 
Now, sir, I am going to give my own views 
upon this subject ; and I am going to say, for 
the amendment which I have proposed, that 



44 



it neither aflirms nor denies tlie power of 
Congress to legislate for the Territories. But 
while pursuing that course, I still hold my 
own views upon the subject; and if inquired 
of why I would not vote for a Territorial or- 
ganization, my answer is ready ; that I am 
opposed to the whole policy of organizing 
Territories by this Federal Government. I 
say here and now, that I will never vote, — 
as I believe I have never voted in the past, — 
to organize any Territory under this Govern- 
ment ; neither would I acquire another foot 
of land to be governed by the Congress of the 
United States, or to be sold by the authority 
of this Government. The purposes of this 
Government are few and simple, as has been 
before said in this Ilall. It is no part of the 
purpose for which this Government was or- 
ganized, to exercise non-resident jurisdiction, 
or traffic in real estate ; and thcrelbre 1 am 
for getting rid of the nuisance, and of confin- 
ing the Government to its legitimate purposes 
as soon as we can possibly do it. Therefore, 
again, 1 am o])posed to the organization of 
any more Territories, and of inaugurating 
again the old policy of the Government, which 
has led to all the sectional quarrels which 
have existed, and now exist, between the 
States of the Union., I tell you we cannot 
afford to spend the time of this nation quar- 
relling about these provinces, which the Con- 
stitution docs not know. The Constitution 
knows nothing less than a State ; and why 
should we be Ibrever ([uarrelling about Ter- 
ritories ? Sir, I am so nuich a popular sov- 
ereignty man, that I deny that Congress can, 
b}' an organic act, bestow sovereignty upon 
the people of a Territory. 

jNlr. Smith, of Virginia. Let me ask the 
gentleman a question. The gentleman says 
that the Constitution does not recognize any 
thing else than a State. Then, what does he 
think of that clause of the Constitution which 
gives to Congress the power to dispose of the 
Territory and other property of the United 
States ? 

Mr. TiiAYKU. I ought to have said, as a 
political community. The Constitution speaks 
of territoi-y as property, as land ; but, sir, as 
a political conmiunity it knows nothing less 
than a State. As a member of Congress, I 
would not be wiser than the Constitution. 1 
am opposed even to granting jiermission to 
any Territory to make any laws, or to manage 
its own ail'airs in its own way. Why should 



the citizens of ]\Iainc and Connecticut, of 
Georgia and South Carolina, and the other 
States, insult their equals in the Territories 
by the favor of granting them peimission, 
through Congress, to govern themselves ? Is 
a man who was a citizen of Iowa yesterday, 
and is to-d4,y an inhabitant of Nebraska, less 
than the equal of him who remains a citizen 
and inhabitant of Iowa ? How and why is 
his right of self-government impaired ? No 
man can tell. If, then, he is the equal of any 
citizen of the States, it must be conceded that 
there is no occasion for the citizens of the 
States, to graciously grant him equality of 
right. 

No, sir; to gi-ant permission to a Territory 
to make its own laMs, Implies authority which 
never rightfully existed in Congress. It im- 
plies the same authority as to command or to 
withhold permission. I will never vote such 
an insult to my fellow-citizens in a Territory. 
They are my equals in every right under this 
Government, and have just as good reason 
and authority to grant permission to their 
fellow-citizens in the States to govern them- 
selves, as we in the States have to grant this 
permission by act of Congress to them. 

INIr. Smith, of Virginia. I want to ask an- 
other question. If Congress has no power 
over the Territory of the United States, ex- 
ecTpt as property, — not as a political commu- 
nity, — then Congress has no power over the 
people of a Territory. 

Mr. Thaykr. Exactly, sir. It may be 
that, under the construction of the Consti- 
tution which has obtained. Congress would 
really be decided to have the same right to 
govern the people that George III. had to 
govern these colonies. I deny that it has now 
or ever had any moral right to govern Amer- 
ican citizens in the Territories. To be ex- 
plicit: if Congress has that right, where did 
it get it ? Congress is the servant and not 
the king of the people. Tiie people, Mr. 
Speaker, in this country, are king. There is 
no other. Nobody else has the attribute of 
sovereignty. If Congress can dispense sov- 
ereignty, certainly Congress has either ac- 
(juired that sovereignty or has created it. No- 
body believes that Congress creates sover- 
eignty. If Congress acquired it, then when 
and where did it acquire it ? Even the 
Church of Rome, absolute as is her authority, 
professes to give a reason for what .she has 
and what she dispenses. When that church 



45 



:^^y 



sells indulcrcnces, she declares that she only 
sells the superabundant merit of the saints, 
so that men that are not as good as they oui^ht 
to be, may have their deficiencies made up by 
men who are better than they need to be. 
[Laughter.] I would like to know where 
this superabunilant sovereignty comes from, 
that Congress can dispense it. Only think 
what a reservoir of sovereignty this Congress 
must be, which has dispensed or pretends to 
have dispensed sovereignty to twenty sover- 
eign States since the formation of this gov- 
ernment, and has never had any sovereignty 
itself, except what it must have accpiired from 
the sovereign people of this country. The 
fact is. Congress has never bestowed sover- 
eignty upon one of them. It has only relin- 
(juislied tiie sovereignty which it has usurped 
and withheld. 

IS'o, sir, this thmg is a mistake. It is worse, 
— it is a fiction ; it is a fallacy. The gentle- 
man from Alal)ama [Mr. Curry], the other 
<lay, woiuhired by wliat hncnx-pocus, by what 
legerdemain, that which is to-(lay public land 
becomes to-morrow a sovereignty. Public 
land does not become a sovereignty. Land 
never becomes a sovereignty. !Men are the 
sovereigns. 

If there is unoccupied public land to-day, 
and to-morrow there is a sovereignty upon it, 
I assure you that somebody has gone there — 
some citizen, who is himself so much above 
])roperty that he alone is of more importance 
than alltlie public land that this Government 
ever did or ever will j)Ossess. He, sir, is the 
sovereign ; and you disrobe him of his sov- 
ereignty because he has crossed a line and 
gone into a Territory. By what power, by 
what law. Congress being his servant — by 
what law can it be done ? By just as good 
authority your coachman, sir, might put on 
your coat and hat, and command you to get 
upon the box and take the whip in hand, 
while he takes a seat inside the carriage. 

But, sir, if the possession of land confers 
sovereignty, and if the sale of land implies 
the power to govern, I would like to know 
whether the selling of the products of the 
land does not give the right to govern the 
buyers? I would like to know whether 
the doctrine that the party, whether the 
government or an individual, who sells land, 
thereby ac(juires the right to govern the j)ur- 
chasers of tlie land, is any more ridiculous 
than the assumption that the grain dealer 



who sells corn, the product of the land, there- 
by acquires the right to govern his custom- 
ers ? 

Such a grain dealer as this was Pharaoh, 
who bought his people with corn. When the 
years of famine had rendered tlie land un- 
productive, and therefore wortliless, the basis 
of absolute sovereignty was changed fi-om 
land to the products of the land. Sover- 
eignty just as much attaches, and with just 
as good right, to the one as to the other. 
The assumption that it belongs to either, or 
to the owner of either, on account of posses- 
sion, or of sale, is simple ridiculous. 

Land is nothing but propei'ty. The fic- 
tion, that the possession of land gives sover- 
eignty, and the riglit to govern people who 
are upon it, is a part of the old feudel sys- 
tem. We have everywhere connected with 
the fibers of this government some of the 
relics of ancient tyranny. When William 
the Conqueror invaded and subdued Eng- 
land, he proclaimed that the fee of all tiae 
land on the island was in liimself, and he par- 
celled it out among his retainers. Holding 
possession of the land, he then proclaimed 
that all the men who lived upon It were his 
slaves. And from the old feudal system we 
derive this ancient, this fallacious Idea, that 
the possession of land by this government 
gives it the power to govern anybody who 
shall buy the land. I have no sympathy 
with any such thing. I detest it now, and I 
shall detest It always, and use my Influence 
against it. 

Mr. Speaker, while I advocate these views, 
the amendment I propose commits no man 
who may vote for it to them ; for that amend- 
ment neither afiirms nor denies the power of 
Congress to legislate hereafter for these land 
districts which are thereby constituted. I 
hope I have succeeded In showing that the 
bill which is proposed will not accomplish the 
purpose which It professes to have in view. 
I hope I have succeeded in showing that we 
are able, by a natural and efrei-tlve method, 
to accomplish these results. I might have 
spoken of the complications which this terri- 
torial policy Is ever Imposing upon the gov- 
ernment, and of the dangerous consolidation 
of power to which these complications'inevlt- 
ably lead. A Republic never can successful- 
ly govern provinces. Whenever It has at- 
teni])ted to do it, the history of the world has 
shown that it has not only failed, but it has 



46 



been overthrown by that policy. The pol- 
icy of acquiring and of governing provinces 
creates a necessity for an army and a navy. 
It is to make the President of the United 
States, to all intents and purposes, a king; 
and I am, therefore, for abolishing this policy 
as soon as may be. 

You remember, sir, that it was upon this 
very mission of accjuiring and governing 
provinces, that Julius Ca?sar had been in 
Gaul, when returning, he crossed the Rubi- 
con Avith his army, and overthrew the liber- 
ties of his country. 

Similar to that has been the history of 
every Republic which has attempted to ex- 
ercise non-resident jurisdiction — that has at- 
tempted to acquire and govern provincial de- 
pendencies. While I am willing to annex sov- 
ereignties at the right time, I protest against 
the acquisition of territory, to be governed or 
sold by Congress. I am for simplifying the 
operations of the government In respect to the 
Territories. AVe have the land to sell. Let 
US provide for selling it; but beyond that 
I would not recommend action. Let the 
people take care of themselves. They are 
the sovereigns. Compress is their servant. 



A bill had been introduced Into the House 
for the organization of new Territories, upon 
which speeches were made, with others, by 
]\Ir. Gooch of jSIass., and Mr. Curtis of Iowa. 
These gentlemen were advocates of the old 
method of organization, with its executive 
appointments, Its Indian wars, and Its endless 
disputes in Congress over the control of the 
Inhabitants. It afforded IMr. Thayer, there- 
lore, an excellent opportunity to present his 
statement of the only practical way In which 
Terrliorial affairs are hereafter to be disposed 
of, which lie Improved to the utmost, In a 
speech delivered on the lltli of May. He 
takes broad ground, in this speech, for the 
peojile tJieinselves, and for the supremacy 
of free labor: believing that population 
and not politicians, will hereafter settle all 
disputes of a local character, which have 
become, by Congressional interference, the 
greatest national nuisances that afflict us. 
This speech abounds with Irony, humor, and 
wit, ami its main positions are very strongly 
taken. It is as follows : — 

]\Iu. Speakek : I have llstcnod with great 
interest to the remarks of my colleague, and 



also to those of the gentleman from Iowa 
[Mr. Curtis]. They have manifested suitable 
Ingenuity in the discussion of this (piestlon ; 
for, sir, it is the work of giants to prove to 
the people of this country that they have not 
a right to govern themselves, and that Con- 
gress has a right to govern them. That Is a 
work that can be done only by giants. It is 
easy for ordinary men, for common men, to 
show to the people of this country that they 
have the right to govern themselves, and that 
they are abundantly prepared to exei'clse 
that right. In the early history of this Gov- 
ernment, we had the Providence Plantations, 
the Plymouth colony, and the Connecticut 
colony, which drummed out a Governor 
forced upon them by a non-resident power, 
and thereby secured to that State an inde- 
structible possession— the proud history of the 
charter oak. Those men fi-om the old coun- 
try formed upon our soil model governments, 
and they did It without ever having had the 
experience afforded by the exercise of self- 
government. 

But, sir, it is contended that we, who have 
always governed ourselves, when we go to a 
Territory of the United States are unable to 
tell our hands from our feet. It is contended 
that a man not only loses his rights, but loses 
his common sense, by going to a Territory. 

The gentleman from Iowa 

Mr. CuiiTis. Mr. Speaker 

Mv. TiiAYEK. I will allow no interruption. 
The gentleman from Iowa refused to let me 
ask him a question. I remember that. 

Mr. CuKTis. I certainly did not, or, at 
least, I did not intend it. 

Mr. Th.wePv. I shall not be interrupted. 
I have the floor. 

Mr. Curtis. I did not hear the gentle- 
man, If he asked me any question. 

Mr. Thayer. I was not astonished at the 
surprise which my colleague manifested, that 
I had taken the lead in this business of killing 
off these Territorial organizations, which go 
upon the assumption that the people of a 
Territory are infants. Therefore, I could 
understand the gi-Ief which he and the gen- 
tleman from Iowa must have felt when they 
saw that this leading and this voting was suc- 
cessful In the accomplishment of that result. 
Rachel mourned for her first-l^orn, and would 
not be comforted. This day's slaughter of 
the innocents Is, no douljt, an api)ropriate 
cause and occasion of ii;rief. 



47 



^<<r 



Sir, grief may have a salutary influence 
upon men. The eflbrts of ingenuity and of 
invention may quicken their intellects. I am 
glad to see gentlemen striving for arguments 
that do not exist, and can never be found, 
showing why Congress shall make an organic 
law for the people of the Territories, who 
are a thousand times better able than Con- 
gress to understand their wishes and necessi- 
ties. There was need, sir, in this work, of 
quick and ready invention, of nervous strug- 
gling for expedients. We have witnessed all 
that this day — 

"All the soul in rapt suspension ; 

All the fpiiveiin;^, paljiitating 
Chords of life in utmost tension 
With the fervor of invention, 

Witli the rapture of creating." 

I said, grief itself may be salutary ; and 
■when these gentlemen see that they are in 
the minority, and that we who oppose their 
favorite measures are a majority in this House, 
I sympathize witii them. I know something 
about tlie effect of defeat; and I say it, for 
their consolation, that I tliink it may be good. 
Sir, I have known something of tlie feeling 
of men who have experienced defeat; this 
feeling of distrust of the power of Providence 
to carry forward a good cause, this loss of 
faith in men, this ruinous and apparently 
crushing despair, maij, sometimes, work great 
good. The ])earl is only the crystallized tear 
of tlie oyster. 

]Mr. Goocu rose. 

Mr. Tii.\Yi:ii. I will not be interrupted. 

Mr. Goocir. 1 say to my colleague, that 
I allowed him to interrupt nic fre(juently dur- 
ing my remarks on the polygamy bill, a few 
davs a^o; and vet he is not willing to give 



me tl 



le same privilege. 



Now, Mr. Speaker, let me say further to 
my colleague, whose grief and surprise I trust 
maybe for his spiritual and eternal good, that 
I will give him another quotation to the same 
point : 

" Such a fate as this was Dante's — 
By chfiat and exile maddened ; 
Thus were Milton and Cervantes, 
Nature's priests, and Corybantes, 
By affliction touched and saddened." 

And again : 

" Only those are crowned and sainted, 
Who with grief have been acquainted." 

Now, sir, let us look for a moment at the 
arguments which have been sought after to 
show that Congress should organize Terri- 
torial governments. I will now leave the 
region of the sensibilities, and visit, for a time, 
the domain of the intellect— a movement from 
what is sublime in feeling in my opponents, 
to what is ridiculous in reason. I understand, 
Mr. Speaker, that those arguments have all 
been made on a proposition to organize a 
Territory which has no white men in it. 
There is not a member of the Committee on 
Territories who lias spoken, or who will rise 
and say that there are three hundred Avhite 
men in the Territory of Chippewa. 

Mr. Grow. Oh, yes, there are. 

Mr. Aldricii. If the gentleman will go 
there, he will find a good many more than 
three hundred white men there. The gen- 
tleman lives so far off, it is not to be won- 
dered at that he should make such a state- 
ment. 

Mr. TiiAYKR. I had it fi'om the contest- 
ing Delegate from Nebraska. 

Mr. Clark of iMlssouri. I desire to ask 
the chairman of the Committee on Territories 
if there has been any petition signed by any 



^Ir. Tii.VYi'.R. If my colleague wishes to ■ man within the limits of Chippewa Territory, 
interrupt me, 1 will allow him to do any thing j in favor of an organization of that Territory; 



he cliooses. [Laughter.] 



and what evidence tlic^' liavc that there are 



Mr. Goocii. I tliought my colleague would ! even one hundred and eighty wliite men witli- 
not be as unjust as he intimated. I must e.x- in its limits? 

press some surprise at the reference my col- j ]\Ir. Smith of Virginia. I do not believe 
league has made. If he had looked up his there is one white man there. 
quotations to express surprise, instead of ]\Ir. Grow. I should like to ask the gen- 
grief, it would have been more to the pur- , tleman from ]\Iissotn-i what petitions there 



jiose. I expressed no grief I simply ex- 
pressed surprise. 

^Ir. Tiiayi:r. I have not looked up any 
quotations. I happen generally to know 
wliat is appropriate, without looking them 
up. [Laughter.] 



■were from Kansas and Nebraska at the time 
those Territories were organized V 

Mr. Houston. Oh, that is no argument ! 
One wrong does not justify another. 

^Ir. Thaykr. Now, let me make one re- 
mark to the gentleman from Iowa, who ap- 



48 



pealed to this House, to afford protection to 
these infants in the Territories 

Mr. CcKTis. I hope the gentleman will 
allow me to correct his statement. 

Mr. Thayer. The gentleman did not al- 
low me. 

Mr. Curtis. I certainly did not refuse to 
allow the gentleman to interrupt me, to cor- 
rect any thing I might have said. If the gen- 
tleman appealed to me, and I did not yield 
to him, it was because I did not hear him, 
and not from any want of courtesy. Now, 
sir, I protest that I never spoke of the people 
of the Territories as infants. I spoke of 
them as men ; and if I used the word " in- 
font" in that connection, it was to character- 
ize the Territories as infant empires. 

J\Ir. TuAYKR. I was not talking of the 
gentleman's orthography or etymology. I was 
talking about his speech. 

Mr. Curtis. I used no expression of the 
kind. 

i\Ir. Thayer. I was not quoting the gen- 
tleman in words ; I was talking about his ar- 
gument, which was to sliow that the people 
of the Territories were wholly unable to take 
care of themselves, and that they must be 
affbrded protection by the General Govern- 
ment. What do they want with our protec- 
tion V And if they do want it, what protec- 
tion Avould they get except a government of 
broken-down politicians, which the President 
of the Unite<l States would send them ? They 
have King Log now ; they would have King 
Stork then. Is a Governor a ten-horse power 
to protect the people ? So far from that, sir, 
he is as much inferior to the liardy pioneer, 
in strength and character, as Lombardy pop- 
lar is to live oak. Wliat is there in such a 
Governor ? What is there in such a secre- 
tary ? What is there in such marshals? 
AVhat is there in a whole force of Territorial 
officers such as would be sent there to pro- 
tect the people ? Depend upon it, if the}' 
are protected at all, they will protect them- 
selves; nobody else will protect them; and 
besides that, they must protect all these gov- 
ernment officials, if we send them. I ask, 
who are the men you would send there ? 
]\Ien M-hom tlie people have defeated at home. 
These are the men usually sent to govern the 
Territories ; these are the governmental of- 
ficials, under whatever party jurisdiction ap- 
pointed ; and they have usually been worse 
to the people of the Territories than the frogs 



and lice to the people of Egypt. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

But, sir, to carry the illustration further : 
Here the people are the sovereigns ; these 
nuisances go up into the chambers of the 
kings. Why do they go ? To fill their own 
pockets with the gold of the General Gov- 
ernment ; to trade with the Indians ; to spec- 
ulate in town lots ; and often, one of the 
methods by which they accomplish their ends 
is by stirring up Indian wars. I have ap- 
pealed to our history to show that the people 
can govern themselves, and I might as well 
go on a little further in the same direction. 
It does happen that the people of the State 
of Oregon were, during the first ten years 
of their history, without a Territorial Gov- 
ernment. Their first Governor, Gen. Lane, 
has said that the people of Oregon had not 
since been under so good laws, so well en- 
tbrced, as they made for themselves, before 
the time when their Government received 
the sanction of Congress. They had done 
every thing that jDcrtained to good govern- 
ment. Still, there are men who will stand 
up here and say, that without a Territorial 
organization by Congress, the people would 
be ruined. 

Now, sir, I tell you what is the object of 
these Territorial organizations. It is to make 
the people believe that nothing on this con- 
tinent can be done without Congress. It is 
an attempt to deify the politician at the ex- 
pense of the people ; that is the whole of it. 
Sir, do you think that this House of Repre- 
sentatives, that this Senate, that tliis Presi- 
dent, is the motive power of this govern- 
ment V If )0u do, let me assure you, you 
know.but little about it. The motive power 
of this government is the people — the people 
at home, who attend to their own business 
and mind their own matters — and the poli- 
ticians here, who pretend that they them- 
selves are the motive power, are insignificant 
in comparison with the fly on the axletree, 
who claimed that he made the coach move. 
[Laughter.] That is the fact. Now, sir, I 
am tired of these assumptions. I cannot en- 
dure them. I contend that it is better to 
leave these men alone, without our super- 
vision, until their fiiults or weaknesses shall 
show that our intervention alone can be their 
salvation. 

I think, now, Mr. Speaker, that I have vin- 
dicated the power of the people to govern 



^^n^/ 



49 

themselves. I have sbown it as it appears in ' myself. You will remember, in the besjin' 
our liistory. These people of Dakota arc as 
well off to-day as t'.iey would be if they had 
our Territorial officials over them. They 
have now no Indian wars. The Yanctons 
and the Sioux are all quiet. But organize 
the Territory, and send out your executive 
officials ; and then, sir, these speculators will 
greatly desire an indux of government gold. 
There is no method so sure and so conven- 
ient to produce that result, as to stir up an 



ning of this session of Congress, that assur- 
ances were given by many Republicans here, 
that this question of slavery should not be 
introduced by them during the present Con- 
gress. I, sir, was one of the Eepublicans 
who repeatedly gave that assurance to men 
whose votes were doubtful ; and had it not 
been for such assurance, you, to-day, !Mr. 
Speaker, would not be occupying the posi- 
tion of presiding officer of this House. Sir, 



Indian war. It will be done, sir, to raise tiie j such an assurance was publicly given upon 
price of town lots. The Yanctons and Sioux I this floor by the Republican candidate for 
will come down on the white settlements, and Speaker [Mr. Sherman], and that assurance 
we shall soon hear of the terrible inroads of was quoted by the gentleman from Maryland 
the savages. Then, sir, a heart-rending ap- i []\Ir. Davis], in his defence against the reso- 
peal for protection. Then, sir, a regiment of lutions of the Maryland Legislature, that the 
soldiers and 81,000,000. Then, sir, damages Republicans would not introduce the ques- 



and pensions and war claims to the end of 
time. They are better ort" to-<lay, than they 
can b(! with these government speculators 
turned loose upon them. 

^Ir. Goocit. I wish to ask my colleague 
whether he recognizes the right of Congress 
to interfere, if the people of a Territory 
should frame institutions which, in its opinion, 



tion of slavery into this House. I have hon- 
estly observed my promise in reference to 
the assurance which I gave men whose votes 
were doubtful on the question of the Speak- 
ership. 

!Mr. Speaker, I do not propose, in the or- 
ganization of these Territories, to agitate the 
country with that question. There is no 



were improper, and not in accordance with I manner of need of it. I have said before 



the theory and spirit of this government? 
Mr. TiiAYKU. Our fathers had a cen- 



that the interests of freedom do not demand 
it. I say now, that the interests of slavery 



cral rule, which they applied very frcejuently | do not demand it. AVhat do the fanatics in 
when questions were asked about what they [ both sections of this country want ? They 
would do m certain contingencies; and that [ know that the whole country is tired of the 
rule was, that they would answer any such ! (juestion. If the whole country could re- 



questions when they should arise in practice 
That is a very good rule for me to act upon 
in this case. 

Air. Goocii. Does not my colleague con- 
sider that such a (question may have arisen in 
the case of Utah, and perhajis in the case of 
New Mexico ? 

Mr. Tjiayku. No case has yet arisen in 
practice. No isvil has yet been consummated 
in the Territories, which the people there, by 
their own local laws, are not abundantly able 
to remove. 

Now, sir, I do not propose to have any 
thing to say concerning the negro in the bills 
which 1 shall oiler to the House. I am per- 
fectly willing that, for a time under this gov- 
ernment, the negro as well as the sovereignty 
of Congress, sliall be held in abeyance. Per- 
haps that is the reason why some gentlemen 
are surprised, and why they grieve. It may 
be that, if my colleague were not surprised 
at me, I should be very much surprised at 
5 



spond to-day as one man, they would say so. 
Have we nothing else to look after in this 
country but the slavery question V Is there- 
nothing liere but " Northern aggression " and 
" Southern aggression ? " Are all the e;lori- 
ous achievements in our history forgotten ? 
Are. all the momentous interests of our pres- 
ent condition of no importance ? But, sir, 
these fanatics, both in the North and in the- 
South, know nothing, see nothing, care for- 
nothing, but the negro question. 

Above us is the broad expanse of heaveo, 
filled with glowing constellations ; 

" In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice." 

There is " Arcturus with his sons," and Orion 
with the Pleiades ; but we have a set of one- 
idea men in the North, who can see nothingi- 
in the whole canopy, save the " Twins," and, 
another set of cognate flxnatics in the Souths 
who can see nothing but the " Bear- uLrclii^ 



50 



to govern themselves. The Titans even could 
not dethrone Jupiter. 

The appeal is made to us from every reason 
of philanthrophy, from every sentiment of 
pity, that those "poor people "in the Terri- 
tories may not be allowed to govern them- 
selves, for the reason that they cannot pay 
their own expenses. Well, sir, if they can- 
not do it, is it not as easy for us to appropri- 
ate money to govern the land districts, or to 
aid them in governing themselves, as it is to 
appropriate money to pay the officials which 
the Executive may send out ? What man can 
doubt that ? If they are in such a strait as to 
want assistance in their government, who is 
here so base as to refuse to give it. There is 
no party here, there has been no party in this 
country, but what would listen to the appeals 
of these people, coming with this plea of pov- 
erty that they were unable to meet the legit- 
imate expenses of their government ; they 
would have an appropriation ; and one-half 
of the ordinary appropriation would be better 
for them, paid to their own citizens, whom 
they would elect to these offices, than the 
whole appropriation paid to Federal officials, 
who go out to the Territories only for a tem- 
porary residence, and who return with the 
profits of their proconsulship to settle in Fifth 
avenue, or in some of the Eastern cities. 
Under this mode of allowing tlie people to 
govern themselves, they will select their own 
fellow-citizens, residents in the same Terri- 
tory ; and these officers will receive their sal- 
aries, not to be transported to Eastern cities 
to be spent in luxury ; but, sir, to be used in 
building up the young Territories, and the 
future States which shall be made within her 
limits. 

Mr. Speaker, another objection of my col- 
league is, that there can be no laAV except 
mob law among these people in the Territo- 
ries. I have shown that in our earliest colo- 
nies, without the advantage of former expe- 
rience in self-government, the people have 
made models of government for themselves. 



the Pole." Poor men ! They sit up nights 
— the one class to see that the " Bear " does 
not devour the " Twins," and the other class 
to sec that tlie " Twins " do not set some trap 
for the "Bear!" A fine help are these 
haggard night-watchers to the great Eternal ! 
Their " eternal vigilance," no doubt, pre- 
vents a collision of the planets. How thank- 
ful we should be that such self-sacrificing he- 
roes still live ! We all know well enough 
what might happen, if even one little world 
should be jostled out of place. 

" Let but one planet from its orb be hurled, 
Planets and suns rush lawless through the 
world." 

There was one man, Newton, who compre- 
hended all these constellations and the laws 
which govern them. lie weighed worlds. He 
gave to mortals the grandest law of the phy- 
sical universe. He could see the whole ethe- 
real expanse, and contemplate it, and scruti- 
nize its movements, and almost fathom its 
mysteries. But Pope says of that Titanic in- 
tellectual prodigy : 

" Superior beings, when of late they saw 
A mortal man unfokl all nature's law, 
Admired such wisdom in the human shape. 
And showed a Kewton as we show an ape." 

If, sir, "superior beings" saw a Newton as 
an ape, by what multiplication of microscopic 
power could they see at all a little dwarfed 
politician, Avho himself can see but one con- 
stellation, or at most two, in the whole handi- 
work of Jeliovah, and these two the " Bear " 
.and the " Twins V " [Great laughter.] 

Let me say to the gentlemen from the 
iSouth who are sensitive on this question of 
slavery, that a sublimer faith would become 
great men. Those men especially who say 
that slavery is of Divine origin. Why, Mr. 
Speaker, who is the author of Divine institu- 
tions ? " It is He who sitteth upon the circuit 
lof the heavens, and before Him all the inhab- 
itants of the earth are as grasshoppers." If, 
then, he has established certain relations be- 
tween grasshoppers of one color and grass- 1 1 have shown that the people of Oregon have 
loppers of another color, be assured those re- I made model Institutions without the advice or 
lations will stand any and all tests. Who : sanction of Congress. lily colleague says that 
■can overthrow them ? Can the North ? i nothing but mob law can exist, except where 
[[Great laughter.] Is my colleague going to ! this omniscient Legislature shall show the 
doit? I think not; for these things which . world some nobler achievements. Mob law, 
liave the superintendence and approval of made by inflmts, and I suppose carried out by 
Almighty God are above even these giants ; infants ! No, sir; mob law niaile by sensible 
•who contend against the right of the people ; men, your equals and mine, from your State 



^ y/j 



51 



and from mine ; every one of them abundantly | shape every expression of the will of the peo 



able to draw up a bill of rights or a Consti- 
tution. And these are the men who know 
nothing but mob law, and this Congress 
should exercise its all-wise Influence to re- 
strain them from self-destruction, from an- 
nihilation ! Is it possible, sir, that, in this age 
of the world, there is any man so big a fool as 
to suppose that Anglo-Saxons have not in 
themselves the elements of self-preservation? 
If there is, sir, he ought to be schooled a while 
longer by his mother and by his nurse. I 
contend, sir, that Anglo-Saxons, wherever 
you find tliem, have the elements of self-gov- 
ernment ami the elements of self-[)reservation. 
Put them down where you please, in small 
numbers or in great numbers, familiar friends 
or strangers to each other, and they will in- 
stitute a perfect code of laws, and they will 
enforce them. Personal rights, rights of prop- 
erty, all rights, will be protected under those 
laws. 

Now, sir, this is a scheme to deify politi- 
cians, and that is why it is fought for. What 
will the politicians do, these men ask, when it 
is seen all over the country that the i)eople can 
do without them, and without their suj)ervi- 
sion and parental care in Congress? " Othel- 
lo's occupation " will be gone, and csj)ecially 
tlie occu{)atioii of such Othellos as have their 
all invested in AVilmot Provisos or Congres- 
sional intervention in some shape. AVhat can 
they do when the peojile shall have said, as 
they will say, that no provisos arc necessary, 
and no Congressional intervention consistent 
with the principles and policy of this Govern- 
ment. I take the stand that any such pro- 
viso or any such intervention is in direct an- 
tagonism to the Declaration of Indejicndence, 
whlcii says that " all Governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned." Is that the kind of government 
whicli this Congress of the United States, 
without one word of authority from the peo- 
ple, imposes, — to tell them how they shall 
act and what they shall do in the Territories? 
Do you claim, ^Ir. Speaker, that you have a 
right to say that a man in Washington Terri- 
tory, whose wife is dead, shall not have the 
right to marry his former wife's sister ? Do 
you pretend to say at what time they shall 
dig clams in Washington Territory ? [Laugh- 
ter.] Who pretends to say that it is the busi- 
ness of Congress to go into all these minutiai ; 
to direct every movement, control every wish, 



pie of the Territories of the United States ? 
Whoever pretends to say so, is not entitled to 
have much influence among American citi- 
zens. 

Mr. Goocir._ I wish merely to say to my 
colleague, that it seems to me he is fighting a 
proposition which nobody ever did assume. 
Nobody has assumed such a proposition here 
to-day, as that Congress could do any thing of 
that kind ; but merely that we should give a 
helping hand to the people, in organizing 
their local government, which may do these 
things. 

Mr. TiiAYER. I perfectly well understand 
all that. It is to give a helping hand to the 
politicians, not to the people ; that is what 
my colleague wants. lie is afraid I will lose 
my place in this House for not lending a 
helping hand. I do not fear any such thing, 
so long as I adhere to what I can defend by 
good logic. I do not fear to go before the 
people of any part of the country with this 
as my thesis : that the people are supreme in 
this Government, and that they have the 
right to govern themselves. 

Mr. Goocil. I desire to ask my col- 
league whether he means to say that I have 
ever intimated any such thing as he sug- 
gests ? 

Mr. Tii.WER. What? 

Mr. Goocii. That I was afraid you would 
lose your place here on account of your posi- 
tion on this or any other question. 

^Ir. Thayer. I suppose that, on account 
of )-our abundant sympathy, that was the 
case. 

Mr. Goocii. When the gentleman can- 
not find something that exists to fight, he 
fights something that docs not exist. 

Mr. Thayer. If the gentleman wishes 
me to come directly to the point, I will do so. 
lie says Congress has the power to govern 
the people ; and he complains because I said 
that Congress might exercise tliat power by 
telling the people of a country when they 
were to dig clams, and when not ; and might 
exercise it by saying whether a man miglit 
marry his former wife's sister or not. Now, 
I ask my colleague if he denies that Con- 
gress has the power to say both these things ? 

Sir. GoocH. What I say in regard to the 
matter is this : that it is the duty of Congress 
merely to assist these people in organizing 
a Territorial government; not to dictate to 



52 



them their measures of legislation, only so far 
as that they shall not legislate in such a way 
as would be against the best interests of the 
people of the Territory and the whole eountry. 

What I mean to say, still further, is, that if 
a Territorial Legislature shall pass any law j 
which in the judgment of Congress shall be 
contrary to the policy or theory of our gov- 
ernment, or which in the end would place 
this Territory in such a condition that it 
would not be a proper subject to be received 
into the Union on an equality with the other 
States, then it is the duty of Congress to in- 
terfere and prohibit or repeal such law 

Mr. Thayer. I think my colleague has 
gone on far enough. 

Mr. GOOCH. Then I will sit down. 

Mr. TiiAYER. That is right. I would 
like to know what kind of philosophy it is 
that my colleague's views are based upon. Is 
it the philosophy of persecution and proscrip- 
tion, or is it the philosophy of Christianity ? 
Does he suppose, when the people of a Terri- 
tory are determined to act in a certain way, 
and to exercise certain rights, that by legis- 
lating here to the contrary he can prevent 
their acting in that certain way, and exercis- 
ing those certain rights ? Is he of the opin- 
ion that he is going to convert these men to 
what he considers right, by force ? Is that 
his idea ? Does he expect that if they love 
slavery and hate freedom, he is going to make 
them good Christians and good freedom-men 
by legislating that they never shall have 
slaves? Would he propose, in respect to 
Christianizing Hindostan that the best meth- 
od for the missionary societies would be to 
send over and steal their idols? Would he 
make them Christians any sooner by legislat- 
ing in Massachusetts, or here in the Federal 
government, against idol worship in Hindos- 
tan ? No, sir, that is entirely a wrong phi- 
losophy. You cannot legislate religion, or 
temperance, or Christianity, or heaven, into 
any people under the sun. No, sir; this 
must be accomplished by other means. Con- 
verts are not made, especially in this coun- 
try, by force. But, sir, it seems to be the 
cherished opinion of some, that there is no 
other Avay of making converts to any thins 
good, except legislation. Now, I have a phi- 
losophy about government, and the duties of 
government, which cannot by any possibility 
accord with the views expressed by my col- 
league. The proposition that I make, as com- 



prehending that whole pnilosophy, are very 
simple and are only two in number. These 
are, first, that the first duty of the govern- 
ment is to let the people alone ; and, second, 
that its second duty is to prevent my col- 
league, or anybody else from interfering with 
them. [Laughter.] 

Now, sir, if they are unable to work out 
their own salvation, it is putting very great 
burdens, Mr. Speaker, on you and me, to 
work out the salvation of all the people of 
this country. You and I might be the only 
men who understand in what line and in 
what direction this great salvation lies. How 
shall we accomplish it with the perverse wills 
of the whole nation against us ? 

Now, I will state to you what is the radical 
and distinctive diflerence between parties in 
this country ; and there can be traced to 
this radical distinction every measure which 
occasions any conflict in this House or in the 
country. That radical distinction is this: 
faith in the people, and no faith in the peo- 
ple. It so happens, and it wisely happens, 
that no party will ever control, or has ever 
controlled, this government, but what either 
exercises this faitli in the people, or makes the 
people believe that it exercises it. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

Now, sir, I challenge any man to contro- 
vert that maxim. It has not been done here, 
and it cannot be done here. I Avill meet, now, 
or at any time, any man on these radical 
propositions of government which I now 
enunciate. If my colleague wishes now to 
make any explanation of his views, I will 
listen to him. [Laughter.] 

Mr. Goocn. I have as much belief in 
the ability of the people to govern them- 
selves as my colleague or any other man 
has ; but, sir, when I look to our Territories, 
I say that those Territories belong to the 
people of the whole country ; that in those 
Territories every individual in the country 
ha3 an interest; and I believe that no ten 
men, or twenty men, or one hundred men, 
fi'om the United States, or from any foreign 
country, have a right to go there and build 
up precisely such institutions as they please; 
to organize, if they choose, a monarchical 
form of government, and build up institutions 
which shall make the States to be formed 
out of those Territories unfit ever to be taken 
into the Union. 



^7/ 



Mr. TiiAYEU. Now I understand all that 
my colleague is going to say. [Laughter.] 

Mr. Goocii. Then my colleague does not 
want my views. He has had enough of them. 

Mr. Tii.VYEK. I understand all that he 
is going to say. His propositions are these: 
first, that every man in this country has an 
equal right to the territory of the United 
States, and therefore his inference is this : 
that every man In this country has a right to 
impress his own peculiar views upon the peo- 
ple who shall occupy that Territory. 

Mr. GoocH. Xo; my colleague mistakes 



53 

ment 



It Is not so ancient as Satan. [Laugh- 
ter.] It is not so old as Sin, the daughter 
of Satan. Its age is no reason why it should 
be forever sustained. It is old enough to die. 

Mr. Goocii. I desire to ask my colleague 
whether he intends to place the framers of 
our government, and the men who engrafted 
this {policy on the Territories, In the same ' 
category wlth»'.he distinguished individual to 
whom he has referred, and to say that their 
work is on a par with what he terms sin ? 
[Laughter.] 

Mr. TiiAYER. No, sir, neither them nor 



my theory. !My theory is, that the people, as | my colleague. I have no idea of doing such 
a whole, own the Territories ; that the views j a thing. But I do say of the men who framed 
of the diirerent individuals shall be placed this government, that they might not have 
together ; and, that the sum of all the opin- been perfect, even in human wrsdom ; and I 
ions of all the people shall prevail in the ; do say, contrary perhaps to the opinion of 
Territories. i many, that the present generation is not less 

Mr. TiiAYEU. "Well, now, that would wise than the past. It may sound strangely, 
work very great hardship in case there should but any man who denies it denies faith In 



be nine hundred and ninety-nine men of one 
view, and one thousand men of the other. 



God and human nature. No, sir; I contend 
that we are degenerate men, unless we can , 



The nine hundred and ninety-nine, who, ac- inaugurate a better policy than that which 
cording to his assertion, have an ecpial right has been inaugurated one or two centuries 
in the Territories, would, by the action of ago. Have we not improved on the law 



one man, iuive no rights whatever. 



of promogenlture V Have we not Improved' 



Mr. Goocu. The theory of our govern- upon the feudal system ? But this idea, that 
ment is, that the majority shall govern. Does Congress have the right to govern the Terri- 



my colleague deny that ? 



torles because they have sold the lands to the 



Mr. TiiAYEK. And all this, ^Ir. Speaker, people who live there is a part of that system, 
after the people In the Territories Lave No, sir; I tell you that this Territorial policy 
bought their land and paid for it ! After that, has been, from the outset, progressing all the 
tlicse men have a right to impress them with while in favor of popular rights. The first 
their peculiar views on politics, religion, on ' stage in our Territorial policy was, that the 
moral and mental philosophy, on spiritualism. President should send out the executive power, 
and what not. There is no end to what we ' the legislative power, and the judicial power, 



might make topics of legislation. "Well, I am 
not for making these things topics of legisla- 
tion myself; and If I had my way about it, a 
poet never would write a platform for the Re- 
])ublican party. [Laughter.] I do not like 
metaphors in platforms. I want them prose : 
or, if they muftt be poetry, I would like to 
have them very good poetry. 

Now, from what source can this power be 
derived, that enables men who have sold 
these lands to people who arc their equals in 
every respect — who arc citizens of the United 
States — where is the power derived from, 
that gives to men in Maine, and Massachu' 



for every Territory. That was the first pol- 
icy. The second policy was, that the Presi- 
dent should send out the executive power, 
the judicial power, and a part of the legisla- 
tive power — the Council — while the people 
of the Territory might elect the lower branch 
of the Legislature. The third step of our 
Territorial policy was this : that the Presi- 
dent should send out the executive and judi- 
cial powers, while the people of the Territory 
should elect the whole legislative power. 
And, sir, the fourth step in our jwlicy was — 
and that was the Kansas-Nebraska bill — that 
Congress should not have Intervention for the 



sett^, and Iowa, the right to say what institu- j revision of the laws which the people in a 
lions the pioneers shall have ? But I am ; Territory should make, although by that act 
told, with grave solemnity, by my colleague, I the sovereignty of the people in the Territory 
that this is the ancient policy of this govern- ' was held in abeyance during their Territorial 
5* 



54 

condition, subject to the sovereignty of the : lieve that the problem which belongs exclu- 
Prcsidcnt. 

Xow, sir, the step which I propose, which 
is the fifth step in our Territorial policy, is 
this : that the sovereignty of the people shall 
be active, and not held in abeyance, while 
the sovereignty of the President and the sov- 
ereignty of Congress shall be held in abey- 
ance. This, sir, is the fifth and last step in 
our Territorial policy. 



" Time's noblest offspring is her last." 

This policy, sir, is the Ultima Thule of pop- 
ular sovereignty — the pillars of Hercules, sir, 
on which I now write, in letters so that the 
world may read, " The ne Plus ultra of 
Axglo-Saxox government." 

But, sir, I will not censure my colleague 
for entertaining any fears for the safety of 
free institutions, which he may choose to 
cherish. I can understand how he and other 
men — not, perhaps, of the most bold and de- 
fiant disposition — may claim that there is 
danger of slavery's grasping and destroying 
all our Northern rights. I have heard of an 
old man who had read what Ilerschel had 
said about the spots on the sun — that they 
were increasing ; and, sir, he looked at the 
sun, to see whether the spots continued to in- 
crease ; and he kept looking, till he could see 
nothing but one black spot ; and then he died 
of grief, thinking the sun had gone out, when 
he had only gone out himself. [Great laugh- 
ter.] These timid men in the Northern 
States, who believe that slavery is going to 
overspread the continent, and swallow up 
Canada and IMassachusetts, get blinded by 
the dazzling light of all our free institutions 
and the glory of our nation's progress and 
history, and they can see nothing but a black 
spot that covers the whole, and, therefore, 
they fill the whole earth with their mourning. 
[Laughter.] Now, I am not of that class of 
men. I tell you, sir, that, reading the history 
of this country, I can in no way convince 
myself that, by all these providential triumphs 
over British aggressions, by all these provi- 
dences in our behalf during our Avhole his- 
tory, God has preserved and cherished this 
nation, just for the purpose of allowing it 
to be submerged and destroyed by disunion, 
or slavery, or by any other calamity what- 
ever. 



sively to the people of Texas, or exclusively 
to the people of Louisiana, can, by any pos- 
sibility, be worked out to a satisfactory and 
correct result by the people of Massachusetts 
or the people of Maine. And as to the ques- 
tion of slavery in these States, I believe that 
the Northern people have no moi-e business 
with it than we have with the laws of primo- 
geniture in England, or than we have with 
the institutions of China, Hungary, or Tur- 
key. Not one whit more. We are a Con- 
gress of nations, to all intents and purposes ; 
we have no business each with the sovereign- 
ty of another, nor the sovereignty of the 
whole with the individual rights of any one. 
There can, then, be no quarrel between the 
North and the South concerning slavery in 
the States. We can only have that apple 
of discord in our Territorial governments. I 
have, therefore, said not one word about it in 
the land district system which I have present- 
ed to the House and to the country. I have 
observed my promise, in them, not to bring 
the agitation of the slavery question into the 
House. That was my promise, and I will ob- 
serve it. 

But my colleague says we must send out 
suitable men to govern these Territories. I 
suppose they have no suitable men there ! I 
suppose no man in one of these unorganized 
Territories ever heard of such a place as the 
State of Massachusetts, or that my colleague 
was a Representative of that State ! and what 
do they know, if they do not know tliaf? 
[Laughter.] Suitable men ! Men who can- 
not get a living at home ; men who have not 
popularity enough to be re-elected in their 
own districts. Suitable men ! Who are the 
men who are there ? They are men who 
have travelled across the mountains; who 
have hunted wild beasts; who have fought 
the Indians ; who understand human nature 
better than any man can possibly do who is a 
member of this House, from the experience 
of a quiet life. These are the men whom 
some little puckcred-up lawyer in ^Lilne 
or Massachusetts, with his feet upon the 
window-sill, calls "infants," while he prates 
about '■'■our parental care." [Great laugh- 
ter.] 

Now, sir, I have no kind of patience with 
this kind of argument, which goes before the 



Now, sir, I have faith in the people of j country assailing the character of tlie men of 
every section of the country. I do not be- I the Territories. But if this were all. I might 



55 



^7^ 



submit to it; but, adding insult to injury, it i city of Baltimore? Did my colleague ever 
assails their common sense ; it assails their i hear of a riot or a rebellion in the patriotic 
manhood, calls them " interlopers, runaways, town of Hull '? lias he not often heard of 
and outlaws," and in every way wholly unfit riots in New York and Baltimore ? I put it 



for civilization and self-government. "What 
on earth did God make such men for ? Now, 
sir, I will yield to my colleague, if he wishes. 
[Laughter.] 

Mr. Goocii. ^ly colleague has been in- 
dulging in his usual style of fighting -wind- 
mills. 

Mr. TiiAvri:. I was fighting my colleague, 
Mr. Speaker. 

Mr. (hjocii. ]My colleague has not stated 
anv argument or remark of mine. AVhat I 
said was, not that these men were inferiors ; 
I said they were men just as capable of gov- 
erning themselves as the people of any other 
portion of the country. But I said that, at 
the outset of a Territorial organization, they 
had little or no knowledge of each other; 
that they were too few and scattered to 
enable them to select proper ofiTicers from 
among themselves ; and that, for the purpose 
of starting a government, they should have 
the aid of the General government, and that 
their first executives should be selected by 
the General government, instead of being 
selected by those men, whom I admitted 
mifht be the ecpials of my colleague and my- 
self. I wish my colleague would reply to 
what I did say, instead of replying to his own 
fiincics, to his own windmills, which he sets 
up for himself. 

Mr. Tji.vyi:k. The House shall judge 
whether I am dealing fairly with my col- 
league. There shall be no mistake this time. 
J understand him this time to make two state- 
ments : one is, that the people are too few 
and scattered in the Territories for them to 
establish a government for themselves. Is 
that correct ? [Mr. Gooch nodded assent.] 
The other is, that they are strangers. Is 
that right ? [jMr. Gooch again nodded as- 
sent.] 

Kow, sir, with the leave of the House, I 
shall answer both these propositions. The 
first, that the people are too fi-w in numbers : 
let mc ask my colleague if there is more dan- 
ger of the overthrow of good government in 
the town of Pa.xton, which is one of the small- 
est in my county, or in the town of Hull, 
one of the towns near Cape Cod, which, I 
believe, has about seventy-five people, than 



to this House, whether the fewness in num- 
ber of the people of a Territory is a strong 
reason why the government of the United 
States should interfere and see that they 
should not blot themselves out ? Wliy, every 
man knows that our republican institutions 
are in the most danger where the population 
is the most dense. Has my colleague any 
thing to say to that? 

Mr. Goocii. My idea is, that there is more 
danger of institutions formed in the organiza- 
tion of a government where there are few 
men who participate in that organization, 
than where it is participated in by many. 
And again, every one knows that the people 
who go to an unorganized Territory go from 
different countries, and many of them come 
from foreign countries ; and I say that there 
is more danger that institutions will be estab- 
lished there not in accordance with the theory 
of our government, than where there is a 
larger collection of people. 

Mr. TiiAYKR. I feel the whole force of 
that argument. My colleague has shown that 
if there was only one man in a Territory, 
there would be very great danger of a mob 
there, and an overthrow of republican institu- 
tions. [Laughter.] Has the gentleman ever 
read the history of France ? Has he ever 
heard of barricades In the streets of Paris ? 
Has he ever read Roman history; and does 
he not know that all dangers to government 
occur where the people are the most dense, 
where they are packed, where they exist in 
crowds ? My colleague certainly knows all 
that ; I will not take the position of denying 
that he knows all that. How, then, can he, 
with a knowledge of the history of this coun- 
try and of all countries, claim that there is 
the greatest danger to republican institutions 
or to good government where there are the 
fewest people? The fact, — and every man 
knows it, — is, that where there are few peo- 
ple, there never was, and there never can be, 
any great danger. 

Jkly colleague's other proposition is, that the 
people are strangers to each other. Does my 
colleague suppose these Yankees are like the 
Frenchman, who would not save a drowning 
man because he had not been introduced to 



there is in the city of New York, or in the i him ? [Laughter.] Docs my colleague sup- 



5G 



pose the Yankees have not tlie power of get- 
ting acquainted ? If they had no social qual- 
ities whatever, they wouhl see if something 
could not be made out of an acquaintance. 
[Great laughter.] Does my colleague deny 
that? [Continued laughter.] 

Mr. Goocii. I do not deny that, if they 
will only let my colleague get up an organ- 
ized scheme of emigration, and put the Yan- 
kees there, for he would select the right kind. 

Mr. Thayer. I will do my whole duty in 
that regard. [Laughter.] Now, Mr. Speaker, 
Avhat is tliere in this humbug of Congi-essional 
intervention that commends itself to the peo- 
j)le of this country ? Nothing. Neither you, 
sir, nor myself, will live to see another Ter- 
ritory organized by this government to gov- 
ern our fellow-citizens, equal to you and to 
me, in the Tei-ritories of this Union. The 
vote in this House to-day has shown that the 
jjeople are tired of intervention, and of all the 
quarrels that hang upon it. There is no end 
to those quarrels ; for so long as there are two 
views in this country concerning freedom and 
slaver}', so long, whatever party is in power, 
there will be quarrels concerning Executive 
appointments for the Territories ; and not 
only concerning those, but concerning every 
act which those executive officers may do in 
the Territories. There will not only be quar- 
rels here in Congress, and quarrels in all of 
the States, but there will be quarrels among 
the people of the Ten-itories themselves ; for, 
sir, they enlist under party standards on the 
one side and the other, and no party, by any 
possibility, can ever attempt to do any thing 
that the other party cannot, will not, censure 
and condemn. There will be thesa constant 
partisan quarrels in the Territories, and they, 
with various reports of crimes, of murder and 
robbery, and arson, committed by Executive 
officials, or at their instigation, will be brought 
to the notice of this House, and parties here 
will range themselves upon the one side and 
upon the other, and we will have bitter, burn- 
ing animosities, and never-ending disputes 
about this matter of non-resident jurisdiction. 

This is a kind of government in no way 
consonant or consistent with our institutions. 
It never had any business under the stars and 
stripes. Now, sir, thank Heaven, it is ended. 
It has gone, once and forever, and we are 
no more to know it. AVhatever we may an- 
nex hereafter, I say, let it be annexed as a 
sovereignty, and not as a dependency. We 



have had enough of this history of dependen- 
cies. Let us have no more of it. I appeal 
to honest men in all parts of the House, — men 
who love the country more than they love 
prejudice, men who favor the institutions of 
the country more than they favor party, — 
now, once and for all, to settle this policy. 

Sir, it was said by my colleague, with a 
sneer, that I had joined the Democratic party 
to-day in my vote. I say, that not only the 
Democratic Jjarty, but the American party, 
so far as I know, without an exception, and 
many of the gentlemen who act with me in 
the Republican party, voted to lay tliese bills 
upon the table. I tell you tiiat, so far from 
being denounced for our action bj'the {)eople, 
we shall be applauded, and the country will 
thank us, of whatever party, for having taken 
this perplexing question out of the halls of 
Congress. From this time we will enjoy the 
luxury of attending to the legitimate business 
of legislation. 

I move that the bill be laid upon the table. 



These comprise all of JMr. Thayer's public 
speeches as a member of Congress. The 
reader will observe that thoy discover a prac- 
tical man, whose views are likewise consistent 
with the high abstract theories of government 
and progress under which we have become a 
great nation ; and as such they demonstrate 
their author to be a Statksmax. In the in- 
tervals of his public service and private occu- 
pations, Mr. Thayer has established a vigor- 
ous and thriving colony In Western Virginia, 
to which he has given the name of Cerkdo. 
It does not lie within the compass of this pub- 
lication to speak any further of this prom- 
ising settlement than is necessary to set forth 
the varied energy of the man whose public 
life Is herewith described. The plan of the 
establishment of Ceredo is precisely that by 
which Kansas was colonized, a town trans- 
planted by the very simple machinery of Or- 
ganized Emigration. By that process he has 
built up a large settlement in an impopulat- 
ed district, started a good newspaper, erected 
manufactories, school-houses, churches, and 
stores, given an impetus to agricultural and 
mechanical production, set up a hum of lively 
industry where solitude once reigned, and is 
making the desert smile like a garden. Noth- 
ing but Organized Emigration has accom- 
plished it, operated by his clear head and 
energetic Avill 



57 



^7-3 



Ceredo enjoys the favor of the people of 
Western Virginia to a large extent. Mr. 
Thayer was told, at the start, that the popu- 
lation of that section would tolerate no such 
project ; he went among them forthwith and 
laid his plan before them ; he travelled into 
Eastern Ki-ntucky with the same attractive 
story on his tongue ; not only was he not op- 
posed, or interfered with, by the people of 
that section, but they vied with one another 
in each locality with their I'riendly offers of 
rece[)tion ! The tables were at once turned. 
Wlicn they found what a sensible, and safe, 
and altogether practical idea this of his was, 
— of Organized Emigration, — they accepted 
it willi eagerness, feeling that it was the true 
key to their own salvation. lie finally pitched 
ujjon a location in AV^ayne Co., Va., and jiur- 
chased a tract of three thousand acres of 
second bottom land, two miles from Big 
Sandy, the western boundary of the State. 



our men of enterprise. All that Nicaragua 
wanted, was the infusion into its veins of the 
spirit of American thrift and energy. It is 
immensely fertile, its natural productions con- 
sisting of indigo, cofi'ee, sugar, cocoa, rice, 
and cotton, the latter being of better quality 
than any produced in our Southern States; 
its fruits being oranges, lemons, plantains, and 
such other spontaneous growths as make the 
very name of the tropics delightful. Its chief 
source of wealth, however, is its cattle, large 
quantities of hides being exported. 

Under a new spirit, Nicaragua may be- 
come a compact ami powerful little common- 
wealth : and Jlr. Eli Thayer saw it as quick 
as Gen. Walker did. But he would go to 
work to develop its resources, and make it 
a power, in a totally different way. The 
speech on Central America will tell the 
reader how the two men differed in their 
ideas, — the one being a Christian civihzer, 



tages of the locality are in its resources of 
coal, timbei', and iron, its mild climate, its 
raih'oad, and esjK'cialiy, its river navigation 



The land here slopes down to the Ohio, and the other only a barbarian fillibuster. Mr. 
is adapted to the establishmentof a city of the Thayer set to work on this new problem of 
largest size. The Covington and Ohio R. II. "Americanizing Central America" with his 
finds its natural terminus here, and is to be a usual industry and resoluteness. He sent 
continuation of the Virginia Central. Another out a body of colonists to establish a post at 
important railroad is also in contemplation, i the Gulf of Fonseca, on the Pacific coast, 
only seven miles below. The great advan- The stock to this enterprise was taken up 

eagerly, mostly by merchants of New York, 
wlio are engaged in Central American trade. 
From Its favorable position, the colony will 
facilities. So great a change has been made command a great part of the trade of Nic- 
in public opinion in Virginia, since he began ! aragua, Honduras, and San Salvador, the 
the work of founding this new city, that at | population of these three States numbering 
least fourteen of tiie State papers now openly i about nine hundred thousand souls. The re- 
advocate his scheme. Gov. AVIse has given suits to that region must be of the very last 
it his public approval, and no press says aught 1 importance. "With our own States, too, lying 
against it. i on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific 

The speech on the Central American (Jucs- 1 oceans, and the necessity that exists for the 
tion only foreshadowed the develoi)ment of ' freest possible conununication between them, 
this same emigration plan of his, which fol- this new emigration project of ]Mr. Thayer 
lowed ujwn the f.iilure of the raid of Gen. ; is pregnant with grand promises. Its very 
"\Vm. Walker. The speech tells the whole i concejjtion betrayed not more an active brain 
story. Under the provisions of the Yrissarri i than a large one ; not more shrewd practical 
treaty, American citizens were allowed to ' plans than large and comprehensive Ideas, 
reside in Nicaragua, and enjoy the immuni- i While others were fussing and fretting over 
ties granted to natives while still under the j Walker, and it was likely that the entire 
protection of their own government. San j country might be split into fillibusters and 
Juan del Norte and San Juan del Sud were ; anti-fillibustcrs, ]\Ir. Thayer comes forward 
to become free ports. Our merchants were ' and shows how the knot may be untied in a 
to be allowed to introduce their goods on the peaceful, civilized, and truly Christian man- 
same terms witli the native merchants, and | ncr. He drives such villains as AValker out 
liave the same rights and privileges. The ' of the field altogether. He shows us a new 
inter-oceanIc and native trade of Nicaragua, and better way to the accomplishment of 
therefore, olTered tempting inducements to | manifest destiny ; the road being lined with 



58 



happy living beings, rather than strewn -with 
the corpses of dead men. It is better to be 
an apostle than a pirate and fiUibuster. 



This is the place in which to insert ex- 
tracts from the leading journals of the coun- 
try, respecting the character of Mr. Eli Thay- 
er's speeches, and his own character as a man 
and public servant. We quote into these 
pages, because such ijuotations arc only a 
fair and necessary part of his biography. 
The St. Louis Democrat says of him : " lie 
stands forth more the representative of the 
practical Yankee mind, out-cropping into 
sunnier provinces, than any other from the 



measure" (emigration). The Kennebec, 

Me., Journal says : " lie is a fit man to rep- 
resent the heart of Massaclmsetts at this em- 
ergency in our political affairs. Original, 
independent, bold, determined, and able, he 
is as true to freedom as the needle to the 
pole, and will follow her flag wherever it may 

wave or need a standard-bearer." The 

Kansas Herald of Freedom says: "]Mr. Thay- 
er is one of the strong siKX of this country, 
lie grasps readily the airong jioints of a pro- 
position ; he does not deal in abstractions, 

but in living, practical realities." Says 

the Boston Adas and Bee : " Mr. Thayer, 
therefore, lays hold of scjuatter sovereignty 
as a means of preventing the extension of 
slavery into the Territories." The Provi- 



New England States. His modes are organ- 
isms ; his ends, acquisitions : he gathers the lau- Jence Journal says : " Some opposition has 

reh of vmr icith the appliances of peace ! 1 been manifested toward the re-nomination 

Says " Sigma," in the Boston Transcript : " I ! of Mr. Thayer, because he is in favor of di- 
have read jour speech, Mr. Eli Thayer ; I j recting the force of the Republican party to 
cannot come all the way to AVashington, to practical and present issues, rather than to 
thank you in person, but, as an humble citi- abstract questions that will not rise again, 
zcn of Massachusetts, I thank you from the arid that are of no use, except to quarrel 

bottom of my heart; and, if I had you by the | about." Says the Granite State (N. II.) 

hand this moment, you Avould recognize the Whig: "We glory in just such men as Eli 



cordial grasp of a New Englander." The 

Chicai'o Press says : " IMr. Thayer's entrance 
upon the political battle-ground of the two 
antagonistic social systems of this country is 
opportune, if not providential. lie appears 
just at the time when Organized Emigration 
has become essential to success. » * * 
We cannot but regard him as one of the most 
remarkable men of the times." The Bos- 
ton Daily Ledger says : " A democrat in the 
largest sense, he is desirous that none but the 
popular cause shall prevail ; that is, that num- 
bers shall be heard over power and position. 
Such men will be in great demand in our im- 
mediate future as a nation." The Law- 
rence Courier says, speaking of the speech 
on Central America : " We admire it for its 
capacity 7o stand alone. It traverses an old 
field by a new path. It takes hold of slavery 
by a new handle. Under the whole of it 
is veiled an Americanism deeper and more 
pui'C, broader and more firm, than any thin 



Thaj'cr : men of ^cork as well as woixls." We 
might extend these quotations almost indef- 
initely. They bespeak for the author of the 
foregoing speeches a consideration to which 
no mere politician, and certainly no ordinary 
man, could claim a title. 

In the character of Eli Tliayer are discov- 
ered certain fixed and marked traits, that 
would have made him a man of distinction 
wherever his lot might have been cast. In 
the first place, he has a forecaste, or high 
wisdom, that enables him, from the stand-point 
he occupies, to throw his observation far on 
into the future. He instinctively knows the 
laics of things, and therefore is not tossed 
about by the accidents of circumstances. Next, 
he is in the habit of taking a broad view of 
matters around him, and of j)lacing them all 
in their right relation one to the other. Then 
he is possessed of a gift of native self-reliance, 
without which the others would be valueless. 
Seeing so clearly and so widely for himself, 



which has ever yet gone by that name." j he abides strongly by the convictions that arc 

Says the Albany Evening Journal : " You can 
have but a faint idea of the effect of Thay- 
er's speech " (the one on Central America). 

Says the Worcester Transcript: "Mr. 

Thayer has already become a part of the his- 
tory of our times, by his inauguration of this 



thus formed. And he is a man of courage, 
too. He dare announce and carry out his 
convictions. Here is where so many of our 
public men fail. They lack just that one 
element, the main-spring of the whole, that 
keeps all the rest in motion. But what forms 



<^7^ 



59 



the top and crown of his character is his 
thorougli truthfuhiess. He may be relied 
upon. In this regard, he reaches even a 
chivalric limit. Ilis word is as clear as his 
perception. The sun shines through him, and 
his whole nature is transparent. And, finally, 
he is one of those rare persons, always in pub- 
lic demand, however, who has the faculty of 
taking JwldoflJungshy the handle. Somebody 
once protested to Daniel Webster that Mr. 
So-and-so (;ertainly was no very great lawyer, 
and he wondered why so much was said of his 
ability at the bar. "I won't undertake to an- 
swer to tha(" returned the great statesman, 
" but I know that he always gels his cases." So 
with Eli Thayer ; his enemies may stand 
about and dispute whether he has ability, 
judgment, logic, or what-not on his side, 
while he goes ahead himself and invariably 
"gets liis cases." He is a successful man, 
because he sees things as they are, because 
he subordinates speculation and formalism to 
fact and practice. This is what makes him a 
successful teacher, a successful man of busi- 
ness, a successful legislator and a successful 
statesman. No man in New England to-day 
holds out a larger and truer promise than he. 
But whether his walk tends in the direction 
of politics in the future, or in some other per- 
haps more congenial to his temper and tastes, 
ic will remain as his monument that Eli 
Thayer invented and set in operation in this 
country, the system of Ougaxizi:d Emigra- 
tion ; that to him chielly, with the zealous 
and generous co-operation of such minds as 
Amos A. Lawrence, J. M. S. Williams, and 
Dr. Wrbl), is due the salvation and prosper- 
ity of Kansas ; that he has taught the nation 
the magic secret of building up states in a 



day ; and that, above all, Free Labor is both 
the cope and corner-stone of all our boasted 
institutions. Such a man the free laborers of 
this country will never refuse to honor. None 
can shake their confidence in his character. 

As a leader in a powerful political party, 
the temper of Mr. Thayer may best be summed 
up in his own language : " Now, what should 
be the position of the Republican party in 
this conflict ? Should it be that of a sneak- 
ing coward, running away from the slave 
power, and calling upon the rocks and moun- 
tains to cover us and hide us from that power 
which we fear is to overwhelm the world ? 
No ! It should be a dejiant position. AVe 
should maintain a policy that is positive, and 
not negative; a policy which is aggressive, 
rather than yielding ; a policy which is al- 
ways on the advance: not a policy which 
makes us the mere tools to record the doings 
of some other party, but a policy which in- 
itiates measures and carries them out. I 
scorn to be a member of a party which is 
content to be nothing else than a writer of 
the history of some other party." * * * 
" I scorn to be one of a party to be merely a 
herald at the Olympic games, and not one oj 
the conquerors. I want the Republican party 
to be the conquerors, and not the herald to 
give the name of the conquerors." Such is 
the man's courage, boldness, and resolution. 
He is an advancing man, not one to throw 
obstacles in the way. He is an iconoclast, 
not an industrious picker up of the pieces. 
Whatever he has put his hand to, has thriven 
as by magic. He throws the magnetism of 
his energy into all his projects, and others 
catch the spirit and help render them suc- 
cessful. 



REMARKS. 



It is due to the subject of the foregoing sketch and author of the speeches, as well as to 
the reader of the within pages, to state that not a line or word of the same has been seen by 
Mr. Thayer, previous to publication in their present form, and that he has had no hand 
whatever in the work of compilation. The facts in his biography have been collected entirely 
from publications accessible to every one ; a great many interesting details could have been 
secured, had the compiler thought proper — which he did not — to solicit them of Mr. Thayer 
himself It is the aim of the present pamphlet merely to group together his Congressional 
Speeches, and Interweave such a brief biographical sketch as any reader of the speeches 
would naturally call for; the one acting as a ready key to the other. It is believed that they 
are widely called for, both on account of the present position of public affairs and the career 
of the man. 









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